Seal of Luck
by Khannalyne
Summary: Since child, Mai is blessed by a unique healing power that she had been hiding. That is, until her power got discovered by a certain ghost hunter who came to her school for investigation. Perhaps, their fate really is an ironic one. Ch. 5 - Updated!
1. Prologue

**Seal of Luck - Prologue**

**Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Ghost hunt or the characters. I'm just messing up with them...**

**A/N: **Hello readers! Welcome to my first Ghost Hunt fic. Yup, this is an alternate story of Ghost Hunt. I have decided to make lots of change than the original story as it takes place in an alternate universe. Before you read, I need to tell you first that I made Mai OOC in this story. Why? Because I feel a little bit irritated with MaixNaru slow development in the anime/novel/manga. Especially with Mai's personality, it could take forever for the two to actually get together... not to mention there's Gene too... *sob*

Anyways, this story will have a lot of twists and a deep character background to spice things up.

I will stop my ramblings now, have fun reading!

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It was a bright sunny day when a little girl with short brown hair and a black haired girl behind her decided to take a walk around that secret path. Their small steps carefully walked past the grass and woods, ignoring the itchiness from the bushes that kept brushing their skin for the past minutes. The girl behind her, however, didn't feel the same as her other friend. She kept calling over her friend's name in hope that she would stop her silly adventure to god knows where she was heading.

"Mai, can't we stop for awhile? I'm tired," whined the black haired girl.

The girl named Mai barely even glance her back just to reply her. "Oh come on Michiru! It's not that far!"

"But we have been walking like this for almost an hour! Where exactly we're heading anyway?!"

"Just past those rocks!" She pointed the large rocks ahead of them just across a river surrounded by trees.

"Mai! That's crazy! We're not monkeys! We can't possibly just jump off to those rocks!"

"Aw Michi! You really have no sense of adventure! We don't need to jump off to get past there, we're going to use the bridge over there!" She pointed out another direction towards an old bridge hanging on top of the broad river.

"What? Mai, but that's an old bridge! What if we fell? No, I'm not going! Besides, Kaya-sensei forbade us to go past there."

Mai gulped when she heard the mentioned name, yet that didn't falter her determination to move forward. "But, it's too far to go back now... it'll be alright as long as she doesn't know, right?"

"Are you sure she didn't realize us left the school? We will be in trouble if she found out about this...." Michiru stated it fearfully, trying to forget the terrible memory she had when they got caught red handed while trying to sneak out of the school last month.

"Yes, she would surely give you two a hellish punishment," said a third voice out of nowhere.

"Right, Mai, that's why we must... huh?" Michiru quickly turned around to see the owner of the voice before her.

In front of them, stood a young woman in her early twenties, smiling at them with the most malicious grin ever.

"Eeek!" shrieked Mai and Michiru at the same time as they both stumbled backwards.

The woman before them was still staring at them with her big cyan eyes just behind her transparent glasses. She was wearing a tight white shirt with black trousers. Her curly light brown hair was let loose to her back, showing how beautiful she was, though the beauty itself didn't hide the anger shown on her face towards the two little girls in front of her who looked no older than 10 year old.

"Now, where do you think you're going, little ladies?" asked her in an intimidating tone.

Both Mai and Michiru glanced at each other, hoping any of them would dare to answer her question. At last they both decided to answer it together. "No..nowhere in particular... Kaya-sensei."

"Well then, if that's true.. now I ask you two to return to where you should be now before I double the punishment for you both back at school."

They both let out a desperate groan. Knowing that argue would bring them nowhere, they obediently nodded and followed the path back to where the woman had pointed out.

Along the walk, Mai looked at Kaya from the corner of her eyes. She hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth to speak, "Kaya-sensei, I'm sorry... it was my idea, Michi has nothing to do with this."

Michiru looked at Mai in surprise. "Mai..."

"Hmm... and what makes you think that passing this forbidden area was such an interesting idea, Taniyama Mai-chan?" asked Kaya in a sarcasm way though her voice sounded calm.

"I..I saw a weird animal..."

"Animal?"

"Yes... I saw it ran towards the forest few days ago. It looked like a cat but it's bigger and it has 4 ears! I.. I know it sounds unbelievable but I saw it... and I wanted to show it to Michiru."

After hearing the reason, Kaya suddenly stopped. She somehow contemplative her words and lost in thought. Mai and Michiru glanced at each other before looking back at her in confusion.

Michiru decided to break her teacher from her reverie. "Kaya-sensei?"

Kaya blinked and faced the girls with reassuring smile. "Ah.. it's nothing. You must be overseeing things Mai-chan. Oh come one, we have to go back soon, let's go." She said it in a hurried tone, making both Mai and Michiru staring at her astounded.

Before they both could move one more step, out of nowhere, a sudden move from the bushes surprised them. Before they could realize what was it or what had happened, they saw blood dripping from Kaya's leg. Kaya was almost sank to the ground before she supported herself by leaning to a tree with a shocked expression.

"Kaya-sensei!" Both Mai and Michiru shrieked at her.

"Wha..what happened?!" Mai frantically moved to her side, "A-Are you okay?"

What surprised them more wasn't the wound on Kaya's leg. It was her furious expression that kept the girls not to move closer.

"Cih... not at a time like this!" She muttered something under her breath before she looked at the girls seriously, "Run! Run as fast as you can!" shouted her, making the two girls winced.

Mai eyes was widened in bewilderment. She looked at Kaya's wound which was now smeared by more blood than before. "But..but... what about--"

"There's no time to argue! RUN!"

Michiru was the first to regain her composure, she quickly grabbed Mai's wrist and took her out of that place in hurry.

"Mi..Michi! What about sensei?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be alright! Whatever it's we need to find help!"

Mai nodded to herself in agreement. She then fastened her steps to match with Michiru, but something caught them off guard. A strange animal just appeared out of the bushes, forced them to stop their track. Mai eyes widened when she recognized the animal as the one she saw prior days ago. That animal was indeed looked like a cat, although it was bigger than normal cat. It had black fur with 2 pairs of red eyes and 4 ears.

"Wha..what in the world is that?" asked Michiru with panic engulfed her tone.

"That.. that's the animal I saw!" exclaimed Mai.

"It..it doesn't look friendly... does it?"

Both girls gasped in fear as the said animal approached them slowly. Its eyes showed greed and hunger, something that Mai concluded as a bad premonition. She glanced at her right side and saw a river not too far from them. Without her could comprehend what's going on, her mind just suddenly screamed at her to run from that place towards the river.

Michiru however was too shocked to move, she seemed to have forgotten what she had been doing. Mai took the initiative by grabbing her wrist and ran to the other side, away from the threatening animal.

"Michiru! the river! run to the river!" She yelled at her.

As if awaken from a brutal nightmare, Michiru suddenly understood what Mai had said. She nodded firmly and determined herself to run faster without looking back. Mai herself didn't know what made her think that they'd be safe if they went to the river, whatever it's, she decided to trust her so called instinct.

Seeing its target ran, the creature took its leave after them. What they didn't expect was that it moved faster than any animal could possibly move. Seeing how fast it ran, Mai fastened her pace forward, ignoring her need for breath. As they approached the river, Mai gestured herself to jump. Michiru who saw it just shook her head hopelessly as she closed her eyes and followed the brunette girl. However, the animal moved faster and jumped towards Michiru.

"Aaaah!!!" Michiru cried in pain as the said creature bit her left leg. Before she could shook it away, she was already mid-air almost hit the water beneath her.

The next thing she could remember, she was already surrounded by water. The impact of the water made her quite dizzy, but it didn't fail her mind to bring herself aware about her need for air. She tried to move up to the light, yet her leg was too excruciating to move. Then she saw someone grabbed her wrist as she felt herself being lifted upwards.

"Mai! Michiru!" A familiar voice called on to them as they were dragged out of the river.

Mai was the first to open her eyes, she saw Kaya was clutching to her side with eyes filled with fear and concern. She seemed to relieve when Mai coughed out and tried her best to sit up. Mai brown eyes quickly scanned her surrounding for any sign of her friend. There on her right, she saw Michiru lied not too far from her.

"Michi!" She looked at her in panic as she saw blood coming from her leg.

Mai abruptly leapt to Michiru's side. She examined her condition and noticed the biting mark. However, the creature who caused it was nowhere to be found.

"Oh my god!" Kaya exclaimed fearfully. "This is a terrible wound!"

Mai could see the wound deeply injured Michiru's leg to her bone. A lot amount of blood can be seen flowing from her leg nonstop.

"Aaaaaargh!" Michiru screamed in pain as Kaya tried to lift her, surprising both female. Kaya was now too scared to lift her after hearing such scream.

"Michi!" Mai called on her as she hold her hand tightly.

Michiru opened her eyes slowly and looked at Mai. Her face showed how much the wound had agonizing her, "Ugh.. it.. hurts.. it hurts so much!" she sobbed.

Mai no longer care just how much tears she had shed for her friend. She stared into her eyes with guilt filling her, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! Oh I'm so sorry, Michi!"

Michiru shook her head weakly as she tried to smile despite of the sore.

"We need to get her to the hospital soon, Michiru-chan please hold on for awhile. "Kaya watched as the girl nodded weakly. She then turned her attention to Mai. "Mai-chan... let's move."

However the little girl sat still with hands holding Michiru's more tightly than before. She kept muttering apologies until something unexpected happened. Mai's hands suddenly glowed brightly, engulfing both Michiru and Kaya with a bright light, surprising the two. Before they could react to what happened, their wounds suddenly started to recover. Michiru could feel the wounds on her leg rapidly healed back to normal as the pain started to go away. Even her blood was flowing back to her skin, leaving no scar or whatsoever. Both Michiru and Kaya blinked. Too stunned to say a thing. Mai released her grip from Michiru's hand and stared into her own hands in disbelief.

"The pain... it no longer hurts.." Michiru was the first to broke the silence. She gaped at Mai, looking astonished. "Mai, wha-what happened? What did you just do?"

"I..I don't know." Mai replied, just as confused as Michiru.

Kaya put Michiru back to the ground and examining her own wound, it was gone. She then looked back at Mai and cocked her brow.

"Mai-chan, that power... have you ever used that power in front of anyone else?" She asked her, somewhat sounded very serious.

"N..No, this is the first time I.. I ever saw... I mean, done something like this."

Looking somewhat convinced, Kaya grabbed Mai's hand and stared into her eyes. "Mai-chan, then listen to me. You must keep this a secret and never talk about this to anyone else unless you trust that person with your life, do you understand?"

"Huh? But.. why?"

"Just promise me."

Reluctant for a moment, Mai was silent for awhile before she caught Kaya's eyes and saw the seriousness in her. She decided to agree with her and nodded affirmatively.

Kaya then gave her a relieved look and turned to face Michiru. "You too Michiru-chan, keep her secret."

Michiru nodded to her then glanced back at Mai, she smiled to her warmly. "Mai... um.. thank you. That was amazing! Uh.. I mean.. I'll keep your secret safe."

Mai blinked her eyes rapidly. She stared at her wide eyed, almost looked dumbfound. Then she smiled back at her endearingly.

Kaya placed her hand at Mai's head and rub it gently, she smiled to her as well. "You saved us... Mai-chan, thank you."

After a moment of silent, they all started stifling a laugh. All of tension suddenly went away along with the sound of the cheerful laughter on the air. Kaya then cleared her throat and informed that it's time for them to move on back to the town. She helped the other two got to their feet and continued their walk out of that place.

"Kaya-sensei?" Michiru called out to her carefully.

"Hmm?"

"What was that animal?" asked her curiously. Mai too was watching at her in hope she would satisfy their curiosity.

Kaya seemed to have lost in thought before she decided to reply to them. "That was a youkai."

"Youkai?" both girls repeated the word in unison.

"Right, it wasn't a human nor an animal. It's more like a spirit and that one was an evil one. Both of you were lucky to run into the river, it's weak against water."

Both Mai and Michiru didn't say anything for awhile as the memories of the past events started to replay back on their mind.

"So, it was dangerous?" asked Mai.

Kaya nodded to her. "Normally, it won't attack people but just recently it started to get more and more aggressive. I have yet to know the reason, so you two better stay away from this area, is that clear?"

"But... sensei, how come we never saw anything like that around here before? I mean... why there's no description about that youkai anywhere in school books?" inquired Michiru, still thirst for knowledge.

Kaya exhaled a deep sigh as she resumed her walk restlessly. "Because normal people can't see youkai."

"Huh? But we..."

"In your case, it's because of Mai-chan."

Mai gave her a surprised look, "M-Me?"

"Yes, I suppose the seal around you is weakening..." she trailed off, making the two girls looking at her in utter confusion.

Kaya then pulled out a pendant from her back pocket and handed it to Mai. "Take it." She told her. "It'll protect you."

"What's this?" Mai asked her as she examined the necklace in her hand. It was a beautiful pendant with a purple pendulum on it.

"Some kind of charm, you can call it... a seal of luck." Kaya winked at her and helped Mai to put it on her neck.

As the necklace rested on Mai's chest, Mai somehow felt warm and calm. She touched the pendulum and looked back at Kaya with a smile plastered on her face, "Thank you so much, sensei! It's pretty!" chirped her happily.

Kaya smiled back to her before she replied. "Keep it always with you and never take it off. Remember, you must keep your secret safe no matter what."

With that, Mai felt her words engraved deeply into her heart. She nodded firmly as new determination born within her.

_A seal of luck and a promise to keep..._

_-_

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---To be continued---

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**Next Chapter: **

**First Case – Beginning of a mess**

In Mai's school, strange things have been happening lately. Some of the students claimed that their bodies were switched, some even found unconscious and none of them has awaken afterwards. Naru is called to investigate these occurrences and meets Mai for the first time.


	2. First Case: Beginning of a mess 1

**Chapter 1:**

**First Case - Beginning of a mess**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ghost hunt, isn't that obvious?

**Author notes:** I would like to thank you to those who have reviewed this story. I'm glad that you all like the idea of this story. I'm not much a talkative person but.. thanks a lot! I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Happy reading!

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The gust of morning breeze coming from the windows as Mai opened them widely, bringing the warm spring air into her room. She looked out into the window only to be greeted by the blinding light of the sun and the voices of the chirping birds. '_It's such a lovely morning,_' she thought. Her brown eyes soon landed on familiar photographs on top of an altar.

"Good morning father, mother." She greeted them with a bright smile.

Mai took some time to said her prayers on the altar as she wished the two not to worry about her well being and wished for herself a good luck for the day at school. It seemed as if it was just yesterday when she, Michiru and Keiko were studying like crazy just to pass the entrance-examination for their new high school. They all cheered for each other and eventually squealed to tears when they actually found their names listed on the entrance-announcement board. It was their life-long goal after all to be accepted in the same school. She smiled at the memory, yes it was a month ago, yet it felt just recently to her.

Mai put on her uniform and stared at herself in front of the mirror. Her brown hair now had grown long to her waist-length. She always seemed to forget to cut it but since Michiru and Keiko insisted her to let it grow, she didn't care much about it. She looked down to her uniform, the white-blue colored sailor uniform fit her figure perfectly. Her gaze now fell into the pendant on her chest. '_It's been 5 years since that... it sure felt like a dream... but I'm fine now_.' She thought to herself as she hid the pendant underneath her uniform. '_I'm a high school student now_.' A deep sense of satisfaction filled her as she strode to grab her bag and locked the door before she left her small apartment where she had been living for the last 8 years.

She glanced at her white wristwatch. It showed 7.30 am. She let out a deep relieved sigh. Good thing that the trip to her school didn't take too much of time to get there. It's just 15 minutes walk from her apartment. Mai watched the Sakura flowers fell from the trees as she walked down the road, the sight was too beautiful to ignore. Some people from the stores she used to visit greeted her along the way, she greeted them back with a smile and bowed her head slightly to them. She was glad that she lived in such a warm neighborhood.

As she reached in front of her school, she was called by someone from the back.

"Mai!" the familiar voice rang cheerfully through the air.

Mai turned her back to see the owner of the voice, she smiled when she recognized the face. "Kei-chan! Good morning!"

"Good morning to you too! So, did you get the message last night?" Keiko, her friend since middle school inquired her curiously. She's surely the most cheerful and tomboyish one among her friends. It's no longer a secret that she's also a master of martial arts, yet behind her rough attitude she was quite a flirty and probably the one with the most interest to boys. Though her interest only revolved around bishounen (pretty boys) and any kind of things related to yaoi. Whatever that meant, Mai didn't dare to know the meaning of those words since both Michiru and Keiko had somewhat protected her brain from such stuff.

Mai tilted her head in confusion before realization hit her. "Message? Oh, you mean Tokiya's? Yes, he told me that he's coming back to Japan soon."

"Hmmph! That good for nothing weirdo! I wish he would just stay away and never to come back again! Mai, you mustn't engage any conversation with him with distance less than 10 meters, do you hear me? If you somewhat see him... RUN."

Mai stiffed a giggle as they both walked to their classroom. "Don't worry Kei-chan, Tokiya isn't really a bad person. We've known each other since child, just like I know Michi."

Keiko shook her head unconvinced. "That doesn't mean I would approve your relationship, especially with the likes of HIM. Even Michiru agreed with me." Keiko paused for a moment as she thought of something. "Say... have you heard anything from Michiru yet this morning? I haven't heard anything else from her since days."

Mai shook her head lightly. "Actually, I haven't heard anything from her too since we last hang out together." Mai grabbed something from her pocket and let out her cell phone, "I mailed her but still... no response, do you think she'll come to school today?"

"Hmm.. her mother said she caught a cold and it's been five days... It's really unusual for her to be sick this long... I tried to visit her house but her mother didn't let me in. She said she's afraid that I'll catch her cold."

Mai began to feel concern filling her mind. "I hope she gets well soon."

"We can only hope." Keiko sighed as she stopped in front of the classroom door. "After you," commented her.

Mai drew a deep breath before she opened the door and stepped inside.

"Good morning." She greeted the class, but no one responded to her. Her eyes darted around the classroom. She paused for a moment as she realized there's something off. She watched some students were swarming around the corner near the window. Curious to what was it, she approached them, only to be collided by a certain girl who hurriedly ran outside the classroom. Mai was too perplexed to realize that she had fallen to the ground. Keiko immediately rushed to her side to help her stand.

"Mai, are you okay?" She asked her. Mai gave her a quick nod as a reply but that didn't hide the confusion drawn on her face, "What's wrong with that girl? What happened here?" Keiko asked to the others suspiciously.

They all merely shrugged. One girl however, decided to answer her question. "I..I was just calling out her name... Nanaki, then she suddenly looked frightened and started bursting out that she's not Nanaki."

Mai narrowed her eyes, looking more baffled than before, "Maybe you mistook her with someone else...?"

The girl shook her head. "That can't be! Unless she has a twin sister, clone or something.. and that's just impossible! This is Miura Nanaki we're talking about here!" She retorted indignantly.

"Now that's.... weird," commented Keiko, "...probably just nothing, let's take a sit. The bell's gonna ring soon." Keiko told her as she walked away to her desk near the window.

Mai sat at the chair next to Keiko's desk, still pondering what the girl had said. "I wonder if that was supposed to be a joke."

"Who knows... strange things happen in this school. Oh right, talk about strange things... have you heard about this yet, Mai?"

"Huh?" Mai turned to face her.

"I heard from the senpai that the audiovisual room at the second floor is haunted. "She told her in an eerie voice before continuing. "They said something like this happened before..." Keiko leaned forward to whisper something in Mai's ear.

Suddenly, Mai eyes widened in shock. "Re..really? Something like that happened in this school? I didn't know..."

Keiko nodded knowingly. "Yup, so..."

"So..?"

"Aren't you curious, Mai? Why don't we check that place later after school? It'll be a perfect place to tell ghost stories, just like how we used to do it in middle school. Oh right, we should invite Michiru too once she's healthy again."

Mai nodded excitedly, her eyes were glittering with interest. Telling ghost stories had always been her favorite pass time since they were middle schooler.

Keiko mused herself to something else as she muttered, "Now the problem is... how do we get in there, the room's been locked for years since that incident. I heard they keep the key in the janitor's room, but... "

"Don't worry about that, I'm good friends with the janitor. I'm sure Kirishima-san wouldn't mind if he lost certain key for awhile."

"Wow... you're going to steal it then?"

Mai released a deep huff before she pouted. "That's so impolite, Kei-chan. I'm just going to borrow it!"

"With or without permission," added Keiko.

"For the sake of challenging adventure," continued Mai, self justifying herself.

Both girls were grinning mischievously. From that moment, they knew that their meeting was a wonderful thing as they thought of each other like some kind of soul mate. Yup, they both certainly comrades in action.

As the bell rang, all of the students quickly sat on their own seat. A teacher came walk in to the classroom, but as far as Mai knew, he's not their homeroom teacher.

After some greetings and bow, the said teacher opened his mouth to speak. "Good morning class, the name's Tada Shouji. Your homeroom teacher, Shiraishi-sensei cannot come today, apparently his daughter just went into the hospital yesterday, so I'll be in charge of this class for awhile," explained him.

The class started to murmur aloud. Keiko frowned as she whispered to Mai, "Shiraishi Yuki, she's our senpai at 2nd year, wasn't she? They said she was found unconscious in the washroom yesterday, I didn't know it was that bad..."

Before Mai could respond, someone opened the door to the classroom. She could see Michiru entered and apologized to the teacher for being late. Hurriedly, she walked into her chair in front of Mai's desk. Mai smiled to her, she gave her a slight nod and a weak smile in return. Seeing that, Mai knew there's something bothering her friend or perhaps, she just hadn't fully recover yet.

* * *

"Michiru? Are you listening?"

Hearing her name was called, Michiru snapped out from her reverie to see her friends who looked at her apprehensively.

"Ah, sorry... I wasn't listening." She answered in a somewhat anxious tone. She realized that the bell had rung and everyone except her and her two friends had gone home. The school had ended for quite some time.

"Are you sure you're alright? You know... you don't have to force yourself to come to school if you're still sick, you know," commented Keiko, still furrowing her brow as she examining Michiru's condition.

Michiru shook her head lightly and forced a smile. "No, I'm fine already... it's just... I've been hearing things lately..."

"Huh?" Both of her friends now leaned forward as curiosity began to fill their eyes. "Hearing what?" asked Mai.

"I.. don't know... voices maybe, but... I think it's just my imagination..." replied her. "Never mind that, what were we talking about before?"

Keiko sighed exaggeratedly. "As I told you before.... we were planning to sneak into the audiovisual room at the second floor, we're going to tell ghost stories there, just like old days…" She hesitated for a moment, searching for the right words before her eyes returned to Michiru again, "but, if you're tired... I suggest you to go home now."

Michiru was thinking for awhile, then she smiled to them. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe I'll pass for today... I need to get something in the art club first before going home, later then." Michiru grabbed her bag as she stood and waved a good bye before leaving the classroom.

After that, silence occurred. Mai was in a deep thought before she spoke her mind to Keiko. "Kei-chan, I think I'm going to follow her. I'm kinda worried."

"Yeah, I agree. She's kinda out today... let's go home together, we can always visit that room tomorrow later."

Mai nodded to her as she followed Keiko walked outside to the corridor. Their steps soon resounded at the hall, breaking the quiet and silence as they passed.

Mai noticed there's something strange in the air, although she herself didn't understand what could have changed for the past few weeks since she came to school. It's as if something terrible was going to happen, at least that was what her so called instinct tried to tell her, yet she didn't know what it was or what to do.

"Mai, let's visit the art club first. Michiru said she's going there to get something, right? She's a member after all," suggested Keiko.

"Oookay." Mai agreed quietly as she descended the stairs and waited for Keiko to go through before her.

As they both reached in front of the art club, Mai couldn't help but feel a little bit tense. She could feel her stomach ached slightly, as if telling her that there's something wrong.

She opened the door and stepped inside as her eyes roaming the room, looking for Michiru. However, they couldn't find her there. In fact, there's no one there, yet the door was unlocked.

"Mai, there!" Keiko pointed out something in the floor. Mai quickly threw her glance to the floor as she spotted Michiru's bag there. Mai approached the bag, it was indeed Michiru's.

"Why?" She asked Keiko who merely gave her a shrug as an answer.

"She couldn't be that far, let's check around the school." Keiko said thoughtfully, her eyes filled with worry, although she tried her best to hide it.

Mai took Michiru's bag along with her and followed Keiko out of the room. As they walked back the corridor, Keiko called out Michiru's name over and over while she looked out her surroundings. For some weird reason, she didn't feel comfortable. There's something that kept bugging her and she didn't know what.

A second later, she could hear something on the corridor. _'A.. voice?'_

Suddenly, there were lot of voices, murmuring and whispering as she paused her step. Before she could register what happened, a sharp pain jabbed right in her head.

"Aaah!" Mai groaned in pain. She quickly raised both of her hands to her head.

'_What's this?'_

Mai almost cried when she realized that the pain actually came from inside her head. Then she noticed that the voices had stopped and she could see Keiko was looking at her fearfully.

"Mai? What's wrong?"

"I..I don't know... there's something wrong... something is wrong with this school!" She suddenly exclaimed with fear in her eyes.

Keiko raised her eyebrow in question, then she quickly shook her head. "I think it's YOU who have something wrong here. Oh come one, don't scare me like that! let's go." She grabbed her hand in attempt to bring her back to her usual self.

Mai nodded to her in respond as she resumed her walk, but again, something stopped her.

_Over here..._

She blinked in surprise. _'...Huh? Who said that?'_

Mai glanced around to search for the source of the voice, yet she saw no one else.

_Over here..._

Again, she heard the same voice. "Kei-chan, did you hear that?"

"H-hear what?" Keiko suddenly became cautious.

_Come here..._

Mai didn't know whose voice was that but the only thing she knew, it was calling to her. She took some steps forward and followed the voice, making Keiko watched her in bewilderment.

"Mai?" Keiko tried to call her, yet Mai ignored her. She started to run, surprising Keiko at her sudden reaction. "Mai!!" Keiko yelled at her.

Worried that there's something wrong with her friend, Keiko followed Mai as she watched over her from behind. It's as if there was something that guiding her way to a certain place, Keiko decided it'd be safe if she kept her eyes on her.

Mai abruptly stopped in front of the gymnasium door. She knew that the voice was coming from inside the room in front of her. But before she could open it, she felt Keiko's hand grabbing her shoulder from behind.

"Mai! What happened? You just suddenly run like crazy!" She said wearily while panting for breath.

Mai blinked at her, looking somewhat unsure of herself, "Kei-chan?"

Keiko exhaled a deep sigh as she tried to stand upright. "What's wrong? What's in there?"

Mai turned her back to face the door. She reached her hand to the door as she slid it open. There, they gazed into the room carefully as their eyes landed into something that they had been looking for. Before them, Michiru was lying unconscious on the floor. They both gasped and their eyes widened in shock. Both Mai and Keiko quickly ran to Michiru's side to check her condition.

As Mai touched Michiru's face, she noticed that she felt cold. Suddenly, she felt terrified. She frantically shook Michiru's body in hope that she would wake.

"Michi! Michi! Wake up! Please wake up!" She cried to her.

Keiko was too panic to say anything, she was trembling in fear as she realized that her friend still hadn't respond to them. "Oh gosh! A-Ambulance! We..we need to call help! AH! Cell phone... right!" She stuttered as her hand searched the inside of her bag.

"Kei-chan! She..she doesn't breath!" Mai was practically crying as she felt tears coming down from her cheeks.

"What? C-CPR! Do that!"

"R-Right!" Mai quickly wiped out her tears and began to prepare the move. She opened Michiru's mouth, held her nose and mouthed her with some air. Then she pressed both of her hands on her chest. That's, when she suddenly stopped.

"K-Kei-chan?" Mai stared at Michiru wide eyed as she felt something beneath her hands. Keiko was talking in panic on the phone when she noticed that Mai had stopped.

"What? What's going on? Do..don't tell me... k-keep trying would you?!"

"No, that's not it! It's... her heart... there's heartbeat! She's alive!" Mai placed her head on Michiru's chest. She definitely could hear her heartbeat, then why wasn't she breathing?

Keiko put her hand on Michiru's wrist to check her pulse. She glanced at Mai when she felt her steady pulse. Then Keiko placed her hand near Michiru's nose and she noticed that she still didn't breath.

"H-How is that possible?"

* * *

Mai released a heavy sigh as she held her cell phone tightly in her hand. She looked at herself in the mirror and let out another sigh. She didn't feel like coming to school today, not after what happened to Michiru yesterday.

The ambulance came not too long after they found out that Michiru was alive yet wasn't breathing. Both Mai and Keiko watched as they took Michiru to the hospital. After informing her parents about her condition, both girls went to the hospital and waited for Michiru's condition. Michiru's parents came later only to be told by the doctor that their daughter had fallen into a coma state. That shocked the hell out of Mai and Keiko. Next they were questioned by Michiru's parents about what happened.

The knock on the door pulled out Mai from her thoughts. She walked to the door as she wondered who could have came to visit her at such time in the morning.

"Mai!" Keiko smiled to her as soon as Mai opened the door. "Good morning."

"Ke..Kei-chan? Uh... Morning, what are you doing here?" asked Mai.

"Well, since what happened yesterday, I couldn't get enough sleep... I decided to visit you here so we can go to school together..."

Mai smiled faintly to her and nodded. "Wait a sec then, I'll grab my bag so we can go together." She told her as she walked back in to get her bag.

As they walked down the road outside, Keiko let out a tired sigh. "Mai... do you want to visit Michiru later after school?"

"Yeah, I think I will. How about you?"

Keiko nodded to her. "I'm coming too... but still, I never thought she would.."

Mai grew silent for a moment, her thoughts returned to what had happened on previous day. She felt a sudden urge to let out her uneasiness. "Kei-chan, do you remember that some people were found unconscious too at school before?"

"Huh? Yeah.. I remember Shiraishi-senpai and some other guys and girls were passed out before, but that's just a coincidence, right?"

"I think they're all in the same state as Michi now."

Keiko stopped as she looked at Mai confusedly. "Wha..what do you mean?"

"None of them has returned back to school, Michi too was passed out and she's now in coma..." She began, "I think it's more than just coincidence, besides... yesterday, I heard those voices too..."

"Vo-voices? What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you remember? Michi said she was hearing things like voices..."

"Oh no! Don't tell me you're going to pass out too! No..no! Don't say a word about it! Just take good care of yourself!" She cut off immediately, looking somewhat horrified.

"Kei-chan..."

"Let's go." Keiko grabbed Mai's hand, intended to move on until they were stopped by a voice from behind.

"Mai! Keiko!"

Both Mai and Keiko turned their back to see a guy in their school uniform was running towards them. He was panting for awhile before he smiled to them.

"Oh I'm so glad to see you guys alright!" He told them with relieved look.

Mai and Keiko narrowed their eyes. "Who... are you?" asked them in unison.

"I..I know you wouldn't believe me but it's me! I'm Michiru!"

Mai and Keiko gaped at him, thinking that the guy must be a stressed one. Keiko shook her head. "No, you're not and it's not funny!"

"But... really, I'm not lying! I don't know what happened to me too, but It's really me!" He tried to convince them with pleading look.

Keiko stepped backwards as the guy moved closer to them. She quickly pulled Mai's hand to run with her, leaving the said guy alone while he called over their names repeatedly.

"Ugh, what a freak! That's definitely the worst way to get a girl's attention!" Keiko grumbled as she ran forward. Mai stole a glance at her back to find that the guy was still standing behind them. He didn't chase them back, apparently, and that made Keiko glad.

* * *

"That makes the 10th for this month," said a red haired girl in Mai's class as she talked with her friends.

"I heard they're all in coma," replied a boy who sat in front of her.

"Yeah, this kinda creeps me out, I think this school is haunted."

"Oh right, not to mention there are some freaks who claimed that they're not what they are."

"Geez.... just how weird this school can get, now I kind of regret my decision to enter this school."

Keiko sighed and closed her eyes briefly as she leaned back to her chair. "Now people started thinking that this school really is haunted."

Mai was still thinking about the boy who greeted them back at the road, still she couldn't remember nor she knew who that boy was. "I don't think that guy was lying, you know.. the guy from before..."

"Nah, he's just a freak. Come to think of it, there's a lot of them lately. When I passed the toilet, I heard a girl suddenly burst out something like 'Whoo...I have breasts!!!' with a loud voice. Sheesh... talk about shame." She shook her head helplessly.

Mai wasn't listening. She still deep in thought that she didn't realize the bell had rung and the teacher had walked into the class.

'_Could it all be a coincidence? There must be something going on in this school.. and that something has taken Michi!' _She thought contemplatively._ ' I need to find out that something...'_

* * *

Mai was hesitating for a moment when she was standing in front of the art club door. She opened the door slightly and glad that no one was there. The school had ended a long time ago and she had asked the art club president to borrow the room key for awhile, she promised that she would lock the door later.

As Mai entered the room, she couldn't help but think back to what happened the day before. Mai was sure that she felt something strange when she entered the room back then. She looked out the window and watched as the students took their leave from the school gate. Her mind then fell back to the time where she heard those strange voices at the hall, then there was a sharp pain from inside her head. She wondered to herself what was that. She remembered that Michiru once mentioned that she heard strange voices before she collapsed. Could it be.. those voices are...

"Excuse me."

Mai gasped as she realized that her thoughts had been interrupted by a voice from behind. She quickly turned around to find a man was looking at her from the door entrance. That man was wearing a black outfit with long black trousers. Mai noticed he's somewhat around her age with a dark black hair, he's a very handsome young man. For some weird reason, Mai couldn't help but think that he looked familiar to her somehow. And why would she thought of that, she didn't know.

"Y-Yes?" She replied, suddenly sounded unsure of herself.

"Do you mind showing me the way to the principal office?" He asked her in a somewhat calm tone.

Mai blinked at his request before she nodded and walked passed him. "This way." She told him.

The man followed her quietly as they walked side by side. Mai was eyeing him furtively from the corner of her eyes. '_I wonder why he doesn't wear a uniform. He doesn't seem to know the principal office too, Is he... a transfer student?'_ She asked herself, feeling puzzled by her own questions. It seemed that the man was aware that Mai was watching at him as he broke the silence.

"What is it?" He asked her, his deep blue eyes stared right into her brown eyes, as if trying to read her mind.

Mai quickly turned her gaze away to her feet. She was hesitant for a moment before she asked him. "Umm.. are you a student? What year?"

He vaguely smiled before answering, "I'm 17 year old this year."

Mai narrowed her eyes a bit. _'Would someone usually answer with age instead?'_ She thought strangely. However she didn't dare to voice her opinion as she felt that although he smiled, his eyes were cold.

"Are you a transfer student?" She asked again. "If you are... I suggest you not to enter this school."

With that, he raised his eyebrow. "...And why is that?"

Mai was silent for awhile. She pondered to herself, If he somewhat wasn't a transfer student then she would have said bad things about her school. There's no need for her to badmouth her own school that could lead to problems. So she decided to be quiet about it.

"Oh.. never mind, please disregard that." She replied quickly.

The man however, didn't seem satisfied with her answer, he was ready to press her further when she suddenly stopped.

Mai's attention was caught by the door on her left. She furrowed her brow as she saw the door into the rumored audiovisual room was slightly open.

"....That's strange." She muttered to herself.

"What's wrong?" The man asked her as he followed her gaze.

"This room..." Mai pointed the door in front of her, "…It's supposed to be locked."

Mai turned her attention back to the door. Cautiously, she opened it widely and stepped inside the room, tense and alert. Soon she was followed by the man behind her. Her eyes were constantly on the move, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

The room was worn out by dust, ashes and spider webs hanging around the walls and ceilings. Some desks and chairs on the room were placed roughly at the corner and showed a sign that they seemed to have been burned by fire. The room was a complete mess with many burned papers scattered around the floor. However, no one else was present on that room.

"Rumor said it that a senpai from third year once burned down this room in protest for being dropped out from school. Ever since that, this room was locked but--"

Before she could finish her words, she was cut off by a loud bang from behind.

**BLAAM!!!**

Both Mai and the young man turned their back to find that the door behind them was closed tight. Before they could react, the glass windows were suddenly smashed to pieces by unseen force. The man on her side quickly moved almost reflexively to shield her from the glass with his arm. Mai was too stunned to move, her eyes were wide and her mind was blank.

_What in the world just happened?_

Mai looked to her surrounding as if looking for answer. She secretly hope that it was just a bad prank from someone, or could it be that the room was really haunted? She didn't dare to think.

The young man however, he quickly darted to the door and forced it to open. As strange as it seemed, the door was unlocked. He stepped outside and found no one was in the corridor.

"I guess this means I'm not really welcomed around here." He commented, almost sounded like a whisper but Mai caught it clear. She was about to question him before she realized that blood was dripping down from the man's arm.

Mai hurriedly approached him and grabbed his upper arm to get a better view of his wound. She remembered he had protected her from the glass pieces that almost stabbed her from before. She could see small pieces of the glass were still lingering on his lower arm.

Mai felt herself guilty for what had happened. _'if only I didn't enter the room…'_ She thought sadly. "This..."

"It's nothing." The man cut off as he tried to shake his arm off of her, but to his surprise, she didn't remove her hand. Instead, what she did next surprised him to no end. She gently touched the wound with her right hand, then a strange light glowing from her as his wound started to heal by itself. The pain was gone in almost instantly and the glass pieces fell to the ground, even the blood was streaming back to his skin and looked as if nothing ever happened to his arm. Mai stepped backwards and muttered something about the principal office location and quickly left, running to the stairs before she paused briefly.

"Thank you for shielding me," She said softly without glancing her back.

The young man was still staring at her as she descended the stairs until she was gone from his sight, leaving him stood there stunned. It's not too long after that, his mouth started to form a slight smirk, showing a sign that can only be described as amusement.

-

-

-

---To be continued---

**

* * *

**

**Author notes:**As there are so many differences between eastern (especially Japanese) and western culture, I'll use the bottom author notes to explain some things regarding the common sense. For the next chapter case summary, I'll only add it once the case is over, until then... use your own imagination for what will happen. ^^

**- Altar:** It's not unusual to see one or more altar/small shrine dedicated for the deceased one/ones in Japanese's house.

**- School:** The basic school system in Japan divided into... kindergarten, 6 years in elementary school, 3 years in middle school and 3 years in high school. In middle school and high school, they don't use 7th – 12th grade term, instead they use "Ichi-nen-sei" which means first year student, "Ni-nen-sei" for second year and "San-nen-sei" for third year student. For junior-senior relationship in school, it's a common thing to add "senpai" (senior) in the back of their names (be it first name or surname) or "san" for the very least, but for senior to junior it's not required at all to add "kouhai" (junior) in the back of their names.

**- Yaoi:** Do I need to explain this? I bet you all knew it already.

Well then, until next time...


	3. First Case: Beginning of a mess 2

**Chapter two: First case – Beginning of a mess 2**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ghost hunt or its characters in any possible or impossible way.

**A/N: **Thank you so much for all the reviews and encouragement for me to keep on writing. That makes me really happy! As for the questions...

Hmmm... when I said 'OOC', I meant it for Mai only, though I have no plan on changing her character too much or to make her all wise and smart. She's much more mischief actually. In short, I will just add her some new traits and characteristic to suit Naru's personalities. So I guess 'slight OOC' would be the perfect words. Oh and... about the Naru-Mai teasing, Haha.. why don't find out for yourself? *wink*

I will stop my mumblings now. Thank you for reading and please keep on supporting me.  
Some fluff before the real mystery begins. Enjoy!

* * *

Mai was fidgeting in her seat. She couldn't concentrate at all, not after what happened yesterday. She just broke her own promise and revealed her secret to a stranger!

She could feel her sweat dripping down her body as she imagined the consequence she had to face later. The only ones who knew about her power were her elementary school teacher Kaya, her dear childhood friends Michi and Tokiya. She remembered Tokiya once mentioned to her in an eerie voice that some people in white coat would come to take her away and make her their experiment subject if her power somehow got exposed. Although Kaya-sensei quickly thumped his head as soon as he finished scaring her, she just couldn't help but think that it might be true…

Her teacher's reprimanding voice for the class broke her out from her scary thoughts. She suddenly realized that her class was currently having a history test and she still hadn't finished her paper yet. She quickly brought her attention back and looked at the remaining questions. Feeling frustrated since the time was almost up, she wrote down whatever she could remember that moment. Heck, she might even create a new history, she didn't really care.

The sound of the bell rang noisily, indicating that the school had ended and so was the test. After her paper was collected, Mai slumped to her desk gracelessly, ignoring several calls and nags from Keiko. One thing that she didn't expect was her teacher's voice calling over her name.

Mai jerked up to find that he was standing next to her desk, staring at her solemnly.

"Uh..yes? Tada-sensei?"

"Taniyama, I'd like to inform you that you have been called to the auditorium immediately. Here, bring these papers with you while I accompany you there." He handed her a stack of test papers belong to the students.

Mai nodded nervously and took the papers as she followed the teacher out from the class. She didn't catch Keiko who was looking at her curiously before she left.

During walk, she wondered to herself why she was called to the auditorium of all places at school. Bad students usually called to the faculty office or the principal's for the worst. She couldn't help but wonder for the worst things and Tada-sensei's silence treatment didn't help her at all.

When they finally reached the auditorium door, Tada-sensei took the papers from her hands and gestured her to enter the room after thanking her for her help. Mai watched him leave for a few seconds before turning her attention back to the door. She closed her eyes for a moment and drew in a deep breath before sliding the door open.

'_Here goes nothing!' _She thought to herself.

"E-Excuse me, I was called to come here…"

Her eyes caught two figures of men who soon turned their attention to her.

"Ah… come on in, Taniyama-san. I'm the one who called you. The name's Shibuya Kazuya," answered a man clad in black who sat in front of a large table filled with stacks of papers.

And she knew that man…

'_Uh..oh…'_

Then, as quickly as she opened the door, she closed it harshly without any words and prepared to run full speed when the door suddenly re-opened, revealing a firm hand that just grabbed her shoulder tightly to stop her.

"I-I'm not Taniyama, you must have mistaken me.. hahaha…" stuttered her without looking her back, trying to fool him but sadly she knew it wouldn't work. She could feel a murderous aura under his cold icy glare. No… she couldn't run away at all.

"Please come and have a seat, I believe we have something to talk about, whatever-san." He said coldly.

'_Noooo……….'_

* * *

Mai eyes were wandering around the room as she watched a man typing on a laptop in front of some monitors in awe. She could see the room filled with a lot of equipment that she didn't understand the use of them at all. Sitting calmly across of her was the young man she had met yesterday whom she believed named Shibuya Kazuya. Finally, her gaze fell to the tea cup right in front of her. She stared at the cup hesitantly for a moment before she raised it to her mouth and took a sip of the tea. Then she realized it was a big mistake once she felt her own blood drained from her pale looking face as if she just drank hundreds of rat-poison non-stop.

"Ugh… what an awful tea!" She choked out while covering her mouth in disgust. She noticed that the man who was typing on his laptop just stopped abruptly after hearing her comment. She gulped, wondering to herself if the man was the 'horrible' tea-maker.

'_Uh… I must have hurt his feelings…'_

Unaware by her, Shibuya Kazuya just stopped his hand from reaching his own cup after hearing her sudden remark. He folded his arms while staring at her with unreadable expression. No sooner, he cleared his throat to get her attention back to him.

"Well then, Taniyama Mai-san. I hope you would answer some questions I have for you."

'_Oh no… not questions…'_ She thought miserably.

"But before that…" He slipped out a card from his pocket and shoved it to Mai. "I believe this is yours."

Mai frowned. She took the card and let out a small shriek when she realized the card was her student card.

She growled inwardly. _'I must have dropped this yesterday, no wonder he knows me…' _She realized that Shibuya Kazuya was sneering at her and from the look on his eyes she knew that he was underestimating her. She felt annoyed. _'No, I can't lose!'_

In attempt to look unfazed, she put back the card on the table and smiled to him. "Oh this isn't mine, like I said I'm not Taniyama and I don't even know YOU, this is our first meet," stated her stubbornly, still hoping to escape.

He just shrugged and took back the card, "Well then… I will just keep this until I met the right person…"

"No!" Mai croaked out, not realizing that she had just leaned forward to stop his hand from taking the card. From that moment, she knew she had lost. "My mistake.. I just remembered my name really is Taniyama Mai and I did remember you." She sighed in defeat and leaned back on her chair.

He gave her a triumphant smirk in return. "Very well, that's a very wise choice indeed." He praised her mockingly as he removed his hand from the card.

Mai pouted, but couldn't say anything else to him. She took the card and quickly put it on her pocket while preparing herself for the worst thing bound to happen.

"Do you remember how you found your friend, Koshino Michiru?" He began.

Mai blinked, almost gaped at him but quickly shut her mouth. She had imagined all sorts of question from him, but not this.

'_I wonder what he wants, asking me that question… Is he going to save her or something?'_ She asked herself.

Thinking that telling won't hurt, she finally met his eyes and began her confession about what had happened that day, save for the voices and the pain she felt, she didn't need him to tell her crazy. She realized that the older man on the room had moved closer to them and typed everything she said on his laptop with surprising speed. Once she was finished, Shibuya raised his hand on his chin, thinking deeply while the older man returned to sit in front of the monitors.

"I see." He muttered. Mai was eyeing him with interest when he suddenly stood from his chair, grabbed a small bag and walked to the door. "Let's go."

"Huh?" Mai was still too confused by his sudden order to comprehend what he meant.

He sighed and glared at her. "Show me where the gymnasium is."

As if a giant hammer just hit her head, she nodded to him. "Oh.. O-okay." She immediately followed him behind as he opened the door hastily.

He turned his back and looked at the older man on the room, "Lin, I'm going for awhile." He told him before he left.

The 'Lin' said man merely nodded to him and returned his focus back on the monitors. Mai watched him for the last time before she followed Shibuya out of the room.

As they walked the corridor, Mai felt a bit uneasy with the silence between them, itching to ask him with some questions. She decided to save herself from her own curiosity.

"Um… aren't you going to ask me?"

The man in question didn't even glance at her as he replied. "About what?"

"Uh… about yesterday."

He closed his eyes briefly and fastened his pace forward. "You don't need to say anything if you don't want to."

Mai felt her eyes widened as she watched his back. She couldn't help but feel a little bit respect to the young man for not questioning her.

Shibuya then stopped his steps and turned around to see her. "Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to show me the way?" asked him sarcastically.

Mai decided to ignore his sarcasm and quickly resumed her walk. As some minutes passed, another question popped out on her mind. She wondered to herself why would such a young man like him doing in her school if he wasn't a transfer student. She also felt curious with the older man named Lin on that room before. It didn't seem that he was a teacher or something and from the look of it, they seemed to do some sort of investigation on her school. But, what?

"By the way…" she started, "What do you do, Shibuya-san?"

Shibuya didn't answer her question. He kept on walking until he felt a tug on his sleeve. He glanced at her who gave him an insistence look. He sighed. He knew he had to answer it sooner or later.

"Ghost hunting." He replied simply.

"Huh?" Mai was sure there was something wrong with her hearing when she heard his answer. She tried to repeat the words to make sure she wasn't deaf in such a young age. "Ghost—what?"

Noting her questioning look he continued. "The literal translation would be to eliminate evil spirits… I guess. I'm with the Shibuya Psychic Research Center hired by the school principal to do research in this school,"

"Shibuya Saikikku Risa-chi?" she repeated his words in utter chaos.

He stopped momentarily and frowned at her. "You have a horrible English, don't you? That's a terrible pronunciation,"

Mai looked away in depression. "Ugh… I know… I don't need you to remind me that…"

"It's a research center studying psychic phenomenon and.." He carried on walking as he talked, "I'm the president."

Mai stopped abruptly as she felt his words echoed in her head, stunning her beyond words.

'_Eeeh?!'_

She rushed to his side and looked at him in the eye, searching for confirmation. "So.. the man in the room earlier isn't your…"

"He's my assistant." He cut her off shortly. "I'm his boss."

Mai was sure she had gaped a lot that day.

* * *

Out from the school building, halfway to the gym, they reached the school garden and decided to stop for awhile. Mai could see some students from the gardening club were looking at them curiously. It's truly rare for Mai to walk with a boy, especially if the said boy was a handsome and odd one like Shibuya. However, Mai didn't pay attention to their inquisitive look they were giving to Shibuya. She preferred to watch him intently as he sat on the bench not too far from the building, then she swung herself onto the other side of the bench, waiting patiently for him to begin his explanation about his reason coming to her school.

"About days ago, the principal came to hire us to work on this assignment. He asked us to look into the phenomenon that keeps on happening in this school lately. Apparently, he had assumption that this school is cursed or haunted." He told her.

Mai was pondering to herself, searching for the right words to ask him. "Phenomenon… so, are you saying that these strange things happening around the school because of psychic phenomenon?"

"That's why I'm here to investigate that in the first place, don't you listening what I've said?"

"I-I'm listening, I'm just curious…" she stared at her feet and pouted. "But you're still too young, there must have been a case you couldn't have solved."

"Never." He answered boldly. "Because I always can."

'_Ugh.. what a confidence…' _she commented to herself in her mind. "So… do you know already about what exactly happened to the comatose students?"

"I have the slightest idea but it's too early to say it. I still need to gather some more information from the students first. If you know what else happened in this school, I suggest you to inform me."

Mai tilted her head and brought her index finger to her cheek as she mused. "Well… what about the audiovisual room? The door just closed by itself and the glass just suddenly broken."

"It's true that there're some certain paranormal activities in this school. From what happened yesterday, it could be a poltergeist."

"Poru—ta—ge… what?" repeated her terribly.

Shibuya sighed in frustration. "I hate to explain trivial things, especially to someone who couldn't even pronounce it well."

Annoyed by his remark, Mai crossed her arms and closed her eyes in irritation. "Hmmm… then I have nothing to share either…" she retorted teasingly.

His eyebrows now creased into a frown. He glared at her fiercely, however she didn't back down. Instead, she glared him back. After few seconds of intense glare without any intention of losing, he finally exhaled a deep sigh and decided to give up. "Poltergeist means 'Loud Spirits'." He began. "Poltergeists make objects move or they make noises. Objects that are moved by poltergeist should feel warm and that was what I felt when I touched the closed door yesterday."

"S-So… this school… it's really haunted? Is it because of the dead spirits or something?" She stared at him wide eyed. For some weird reasons, she felt a little bit excited and anxious at the same time.

"I said there are some paranormal activities around this school, it's too early to conclude everything. Besides, there's a possibility that this might be caused by a curse."

She gasped, quickly raised her hand to her mouth in surprise. "Curse?! Why would anyone… Oh wait, what about the 3rd year senpai who burned down the audiovisual room? Do you think he cursed this school?"

He pulled out a black notebook from his bag and opened the book, revealing some writings that Mai guessed as English writings since she couldn't understand it at all. In fact, she almost thought of it as an ancient tome, but she would rather have another history test than to blurt that out loud in front of him. She surely didn't have any death wish.

"I have investigated that fire incident and the possibility for your senpai to curse the school is almost zero." He averted his gaze to his book and began his explanation. "The man didn't burn it down. Instead, he was smoking in the room, which caused a fire and a drop out. The room was abandoned due to lack of funding to repair it, besides, it wasn't really needed. Though I did try finding out about him just in case that he did resent the school, however the evidence showed that he didn't."

Mai clapped her hands in awe. "Really? You found out about him? So how is he now?"

"He's happily married with proper job as well, if that satisfied your curiosity."

Mai felt herself smiling brightly as a respond. "Ohh… that's a relief. So if it wasn't him, who? What else can cause a curse? Dead spirits?"

"I have looked further into that matter as well. Before the school's built, this place was a Shinto shrine. A sudden earthquake caused the shrine in wreckage condition and they decided to move the shrine. There were casualties from the incident, but none was dead." He flipped another page and continued his reading. "Afterwards, this place was just an abandoned building until 20 years ago, this school's finally built. There hadn't been a single death case reported at the school's ground. My gut tells me, this is something unrelated to the death."

With that, he closed his book and put it back on his bag. Mai was staring at him stunned still, her lips formed a perfect 'O' for not being able to say a word until the sound of him clearing his throat snapped her back to reality.

"I hope you didn't fall asleep with eyes open while I spoke."

Mai quickly shook her head roughly. "Wha? No! I was just surprised. That was impressive, a very good research." She praised him with a nod. Her eyes were beaming with amazement.

"This is nothing. Don't underestimate my investigation skill." He merely told her.

"I-I don't…" She mumbled incoherently and looked away. "I was just saying what I thought…"

Shibuya glanced at her from the corner of his eyes as she fiddled the dirt on the ground with her shoes, looking all gloom from being treated harshly by him. He sighed quietly and smirked in amusement at her reaction. He decided not to spat on her too much and softened his voice.

"I have said what you wanted to know. Now, do you mind telling me what you know about this school from the students' view point?"

Mai lifted her head and gazed at him in surprise by his change of tone. She nodded to him and smiled before she raised her finger to her cheek and started thinking deeply. Her thoughts now wandering back to what had happened to certain students. He might want to know about it.

"Um… well, I don't know if you knew this already but, there's another strange thing happening in this school. The teachers don't pay attention to it much since they think it's just a joke but, actually… some students are acting really… really weird."

To her dismay, Shibuya arched his eyebrow, looking somewhat interested in her story.

"Continue." He demanded.

"Uh you see… there are some students who claimed that that they're not what they are. Like Miura Nanaki, the girl in my class who said that she isn't Nanaki-chan. Even yesterday, I met a boy who said that he's actually Michi, I mean… Koshino Michiru. The weird thing is, there are quite a lot of them lately and most of them now absent from school, they all looked very serious too."

Once she finished her statement, Mai noticed that Shibuya raised his hand to his chin again. It seemed he always did that whenever he was thinking hard.

"This could be troublesome." He finally muttered under his breath, resulting Mai to narrow her eyes in puzzlement. But just when she was about to ask him, a load scream interrupted her completely.

"MAI!!!"

Mai jerked up in surprise to see Keiko was sprinting towards her with horrified expression.

"GET OFF FROM THAT PERVERT!"

Both Shibuya and Mai raised their eyebrows at her sudden inexplicable burst. Mai watched in pure terror as Keiko suddenly launched an attack to Shibuya in swift karate-kick movement. Fortunately, they both able to dodge her kick in time or else they would ended up crushed in two just like the poor bench they had sat on.

"Ke..Kei-chan.. w-what's wrong with you?" stammered Mai once she had landed gracelessly on the ground. Not too far from her, Shibuya was standing cautiously from Keiko, sweat-drops.

Keiko quickly stood before Mai and faced Shibuya as if he was a threat. Then, after a few moments of glowering, her eyes widened in realization.

"Oh… my! Forgive me!" She suddenly apologized and bowed deeply to him before looking back at him in the eye. "I'm sorry… I thought you were a pervert since there's quite a lot of them trying to get Mai's attention, it's just she's so thick-head to realize that herself so I have to protect her from such leeches." She smiled to him slyly before moving closer to Mai and whispered in a low voice but loud enough for Shibuya to hear. "Wow Mai… since when did you know this handsome guy? You're such a lucky girl!"

Mai frowned at her, still too perplexed to understand her words. She stood up and tilted her head in confusion. "Kei-chan?"

Keiko then approached Shibuya and smiled. "I never saw you before, are you Mai's boyfriend? Please take good care of her. She's kinda dense but she's really a nice girl." She told him with a wink then she turned to see Mai who still frowning at her. "Well.. Mai-chan, I was kinda worried what happened to you when you're called by Tada-sensei… but it seems you're just fine." She glanced at Shibuya knowingly and smirked. "I will leave you two alone now, see you tomorrow, Mai!" she said as she left just as fast as she came.

Both Mai and Shibuya fell silent for quite some time, then Shibuya commented right after Keiko had completely out of sight. "You have an interesting friend."

Mai sighed heavily. "Um… please forgive her. Kei-chan always gets alarmed whenever I'm close to any male beings. Though I dunno what's on her mind for saying you're handsome and all."

He smirked at her. "At least she has a good taste."

Mai blinked at him. _'Did he just… praise himself?' _She tried to hold back a chuckle but failed when she remembered that he just reminded her of an old story about a narcissist who died from trying to kiss his own reflection on the lake. _'Narcissist… right, that suits him right… Narcissist Naru–chan!'_ she thought as she giggled, earning a glare from him.

"What?" He asked, almost sounded like a demand.

"Nope…it's nothing. This way, Mr. pervert…" She burst into another fit of giggle, ignoring his scowl at her as she walked past ahead of him, leading the way to the gymnasium cheerfully.

* * *

It was a good thing that the sport club had no activity that day. The gym door was locked but fortunately, Mai was able to get the key from the Janitor without much trouble. Once they were inside, Mai told Shibuya Kazuya a.k.a. Naru where she found Michiru and what happened when she got there with Keiko. She watched Naru in wonder as he leisurely walked around the gym, touching the walls and the floor strangely. She couldn't help but approached him to get a better look on what he was doing.

"Naru-chan… what are you doing?" she asked him spontaneously.

Naru, who was in deep concentration suddenly jerked up and turned around to face her with widened eyes. "What… did you call me?" demanded him. "Did you just call me 'Naru'?"

Mai flinched at his reaction. She instinctively stepped backwards, hands in the air. "Oh.. I-I'm sorry…"

He narrowed his eyes to her. "Where did you hear that?" asked him again, this time with lower tone and more composure.

"Huh?" Mai blinked at him for awhile then snickered when realization suddenly hit her. "Ah.. 'Naru' must be your real nickname!" exclaimed her, "Just as I thought, everyone else can think of it. Naru-chan, short for narcissist!" She grinned at him and patted his back teasingly. "So, are you going to tell me what you were doing?"

Naru just arched his eyebrow at her and turned his back to hide his relieved expression, then he maintained his serious face back. "It's none of your business. You should go home now. If possible, don't come to school, you might end up like your friend if you do."

Mai stared at him stunned. She could feel anger rose to her head from thinking what had happened to her friend, Michi. "No." she muttered lowly.

Naru was about to reprimand her again when he suddenly stopped after seeing her flustered face.

"I don't want to. How could I just run and hide when my friend is struggling to live in the hospital!" She moved closer to him while clenching her hands to a fist and raised them to her chest, eyes filled with determination. "There must be something I can do. You're going to help the students, right? Then let me help too!"

Naru was taken aback by her sudden outburst. He lifted one hand to his chin, gazing her keenly while considering her words for mere moments before he spoke in quiet manner. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes!" She replied resolutely.

He narrowed his eyes after hearing her impulsive answer. A mischievous thought just passed his mind and he was sure he could pull it out just fine.

"Then work for me."

"Yes!" Then she stared at him wide eyed, dumbfounded by his remark and her own thoughtless answer. "…Eh?"

"You will work for me as my assistance." He added with a smirk.

Mai gulped. Seeing him smirking devilishly made her realize that she had blindly fallen into his trap. She cursed herself for being so impetuous. "W-wait, can I take that back…?"

"No." He told her firmly as he walked away, leaving her wailing to herself inwardly. She was about to protest some more when she suddenly heard a strange voice out of nowhere.

Naru could feel a steady hand just grabbed his arm unexpectedly shaken. He looked back at Mai and surprised to see her appalled expression. He could see her eyes filled with shock and her hand was shivering slightly.

"D-did you hear that?" she asked with trembling voice.

Naru narrowed his eyes and began to concentrate on hearing his surroundings. That was when he heard a faint sobbing voice coming from the gymnasium storage. They both glanced at each other and Naru could feel himself nod, walking to the storage with Mai following behind, her hand still attached to his sleeve yet he didn't mind it too much.

They realized the storage door was locked when Naru had tried to slide it open. Mai brought out the gymnasium key from her pocket. Luckily, there's another key close to the main key. Naru took the keys from her and unlocked the door. Mai could feel herself tense once Naru had opened the door. Now they could hear the sobbing voice clearer. As Mai entered the room, she saw someone with a male school uniform clutching his knees with his hands just at the corner of the room. Mai stiffened at the sight, never before she saw a boy around her age crying like that, not like she ever saw a man crying before either. She started doubting the boy whether he's human or a ghost. Carefully, Mai stepped forward along with Naru just in front of her.

"Um… are you okay?" She asked dubiously.

The boy suddenly gasped and jerked up, letting them to see his crying face. His black eyes were puffy red and his cheeks were stained by tears, however his expression had a color of hope when their eyes met. Mai slightly stepped backwards when she noticed that the boy was the one she met prior days ago. He was the one who called her and Keiko and claimed that he was Michiru.

"Mai?" The boy murmured. Mai just stared at him doubtfully. Then he suddenly stood up and about to run closer to her but Mai quickly hid herself behind Naru, who just looked as calm as ever.

"Wha… I-I don't know you! Who…who are you?" Mai asked stuttered.

The boy stopped his track, his expression now changed back into sadness, making Mai felt a little bit of guilty. He stepped back and sat on the floor, depressed.

"You wouldn't believe me too? I'm… Michiru." He said with a strained voice.

Mai came out from behind Naru, she moved closer to him but still far enough, feeling that he wasn't really a threat. "C-Can you prove it? Tell me something that only Michiru and I know," demanded her with a strange hands gesture.

He wiped out his tears and let out a soft sigh before he lifted his eyes to meet Mai's, then he smiled weakly to her. "Yes… do you remember our promise when we were 9? Along with Kaya-nee, we made a promise to keep your power a secret." He told her in a sad tone.

Mai felt her eyes widened in shock. After few minutes of silent, she looked at Naru with confirmation on her eyes. "Naru, he really is Michiru…"

Naru just gazed at her then to Michiru with unreadable expression. He lifted his hand to his chin and narrowed his eyes as he muttered. "Interesting…"

Naru made a move to approach Michiru. Mai who saw it followed him and immediately rushed to Michiru's side, giving her* a reassuring smile. (*since it's confusing, I'll call Michiru a she).

"Michi, are you alright? How did you end up like this?" asked Mai who couldn't contain her curiosity.

Michiru shook her head lightly. "I-I don't know… I was about to grab my things in the art club when I suddenly felt dizzy. Once I woke up, I already like this. From the students, I heard that I was collapsed in the gym so I came here but some teachers were coming and I decided to hide myself here. That was when I found out they locked the door and I couldn't get out..." She wiped another tears formed on her eyes. Mai placed her hands on Michiru's which she grasped tightly.

"I see.." said Naru, "We shouldn't be here now. Let's go back to the base first."

Mai looked at Naru hopefully. "Naru, can we change her back?"

"I'm not sure. We'll have to discuss this further. I want to hear more details from you." He told Michiru.

Michiru looked slightly aghast. She looked down on her feet. "What should I do if I can't get back…? I don't know anything about this boy, no one recognized me, I don't even know where to go back! I'm scared…"

"Michi… It's alright. We'll surely find a way to bring you back!" She assured her confidently. "You can stay with me in my place as long as you want, you can even sleep in my closet and I'll feed you three times a day!"

"Mai.. I'm not a dog…" she said between her sobs but still managed to let out a chuckle.

Mai felt herself blushing slightly. "I-I know." She looked down at their hands with a sad look. "It's just… I'm just relieved it's really you. When I saw you lying unconscious on the hospital bed, I just couldn't help but think that you're not going to wake up again. I tried to use my power on you but it wouldn't work! I was really scared..." She cried lightly, earning a sympathetic glance and grateful look from Michiru.

"Mai…" Michiru gave her a warm smile and hugged her gently.

Mai could hear a muffled sob coming from her. Then she suddenly pushed her away and frowned teasingly. "Michi, don't cry too, not with that body, you look really weird when you do."

"Why you little..!"

The sound of Naru clearing his throat interrupted both friends. They looked up to Naru who was standing in the doorway, ready to leave. "Sorry to disturb your moment but we still have a work to do, unless you both want to stay there forever."

Mai pouted at him. Michiru who was oblivious to anyone but Mai before, finally realized that Mai was with someone and that someone was a truly handsome one. She looked at Mai questioningly but couldn't hide the enthusiasm on her eyes.

"Mai, who's he?" She asked her demandingly.

"Huh?" Mai turned her attention back to Michi, ignoring Naru who already walked away, leaving the two alone. "It's Naru. He's a… well, you could say an investigator or something like that. He came here hired by the principal."

"Really? That's really cool! But… we said things about your power… he heard it too… " uttered Michiru worriedly.

Mai just smiled at her and help her stood. "Nah it's alright. He already knew anyway."

Michiru blinked her eyes and felt her eyes widened in surprise. "You don't…"

"It's alright Michi, I think we can trust him." Mai nodded, almost to herself. "Somehow he reminds me of Tokiya."

Michiru raised one of her eyebrows, looking unconvinced. "That gives me MORE reason not to trust him, you know."

Mai sheepishly scratched her cheek with her index finger. "My mistake, let's just say he's the nicer one."

Michiru let out a weary sigh, then she smiled softly to her. "Well I guess it's alright since he's handsome." She told Mai with a grin.

Mai grimaced at her words. "Michi, you shouldn't talk like that… not with that body. It's creepy."

"Why.. you!"

In few seconds, Mai had already escaped herself from Michiru's wrath. With that new body of hers, it will surely be painful if she got hit by her. She ran straight away to Naru, who only shook his head helplessly. She could almost hear him muttered 'Idiot' under his breath but pretended not to hear anything for the sake of her own safety. Of course, she wouldn't want Naru to turn on her too when an upset Michiru was just few feet behind her.

-

-

-

---To be continued---

* * *

**A/N:** This chapter has quite a lot of parallels with the original storyline. Well this is just the first case after all. Next chapter will conclude all the mysteries, probably. Unless you're able to find some hints in this chapter...

Well then, until next time!


	4. First Case: Beginning of a mess 3

**Chapter 3: **

**First Case – Beginning of a mess 3**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ghost hunt or its characters in any possible or impossible way.

* * *

"Have a sit," ordered Naru to the two girls who were standing tentatively on the auditorium doorway as he walked into the room.

The two girls, Mai and Michiru obediently sat on the chairs pointed out by Naru. Mai realized that her friend, Michiru, looked somewhat astounded by the room condition they were in. That couldn't be helped considering the auditorium they knew was now filled with lots of heavy looking equipments, monitors, cameras and other tools that they're both unfamiliar with. Naru approached the man named Lin for mere moments as they talked with low voices, then he walked back with some kind of tape recorder in his hand and sat across Mai and Michiru.

"Now, tell me everything you know from the moment you felt dizzy." He told Michiru with a solemn face. His hand turned on the tape on the table and his eyes staring at Michiru intently.

Michiru swallowed hard, looking anything but comfortable. Mai gently held her hand to reassure the girl which she grateful for, and so Michiru began her story.

"I started feeling dizzy about a month ago. I don't know why but the school surroundings somehow bothered me a little. Sometimes, when I entered a room, I felt a little cold. At first I thought I just caught a cold but then it became worsen each day. It became much colder than before, so cold that I wanted to run away. Then… I heard those voices…" She trailed off. Her eyes filled with anxiety and her hand was trembling in Mai's grasp. Mai tightened her grip to calm the girl down, telling her in silent that she's not alone.

"Voices?" asked Naru, somehow he looked more serious than before.

Michiru nodded to him. "Whispers.. murmurs… as if someone was watching you… talking about you…" She told him hoarsely, almost like a whisper itself.

Mai winced slightly after hearing her explanation. She too, experienced the same.

Michiru drew a deep breath before she continued. "I thought it was just my imagination so I decided to ignore it, until… until I came to the art club room few days ago… that was when I felt a sharp pain in my head. After that… I felt like someone was calling over me, telling me to come somewhere but… I felt weak, too weak to move… before I realized what had happened, I felt dizzy… then everything went black. When I woke up, I… I'm already like this…" She sighed in frustration, releasing her hand from Mai's and clutched her chest tightly.

She was on the verge of tears, yet she forced herself to speak. "I-I woke up in the library, the janitor was there with me. He told me he found me lying unconscious on the floor when he was about to lock the door. I didn't understand when he said a lad like me shouldn't be sleeping on the library's floor. But I realized then after I saw myself in the mirror… I'm… a boy…" her eyes were swelling with tears as she stared at her hands blankly. "I..I didn't know what to do…I decided to go home… to my house, but… it was empty, no one was there and I didn't have any key with me. I waited till morning and no one came, so I decided to go to school instead. I thought… my friends might be able to help me… but, I… I…" Michiru gasped and shook her head in distress, causing her tears to fall roughly from her cheeks. She brought her hands to her face and cried softly, unable to fight her own desperation to spill the sorrow she felt.

"Michi…" Mai sympathetically hugged her side and sobbed in her shoulder. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… If only I realized it sooner… I shouldn't have doubted you that time."

Michiru gently pushed Mai away and shook her head lightly. She wiped her tears with her hands and looked at Mai in the eyes as she gave her a feeble smile. "No, it wasn't your fault... It's understandable. I would have done the same if I were you that time. I'm just glad that you believe me now."

"Michi…" Mai raised one of her hands to wipe out the tears on her own eyes, then she smiled back to her friend. Both girls seemed to have calmed down as they smiled to each other with a deep trust in their gaze. After few moment of silent, Mai gave her attention back to Naru who already turned off the tape recorder and now mused to himself. "Naru, you see… actually, I felt the same thing too before I found Michi. In fact, I was able to find Michi because of a voice that guided me to the gym… what do you think it was?"

Naru looked slightly disturbed after hearing her statement. "Why didn't you tell me that before?" he asked her back, looking a bit annoyed.

"Uh well… I didn't know you're handling this paranormal thingy, I just thought that you might only send me to a psychiatric if I did tell you."

He sighed inaudibly. "Every detail might play a significant role, it's important not to keep that all to yourself."

Mai scratched her cheek with her finger nervously. Her eyes barely met Naru's as she looked down at her shuffling feet, feeling a bit awkward from being scolded by someone not too old from her age. "Um.. sorry…"

"You might be a psychic, though how strong or sensitive your sense is still unknown to me, my guess is… you were experiencing what your friend had experienced before she collapsed, thus leading you to her." He explained, "Judging that you felt it only for your friend, I guess a strong bond between you two was the one that allowed you to feel that."

Mai could feel herself agreeing with Naru. She gave him a firm nod and a smile, feeling satisfied by his conclusion.

"Shibuya." A sudden name call from Lin to Naru interrupted them. They all looked up to Lin who was standing beside Naru with some papers in his hand. He handed the papers to Naru, who soon read them with narrowed eyes.

Naru lifted his blue eyes to meet Mai and Michiru's. "Do any of you know someone named Kuroda Shiori?"

Mai cocked her eyebrows in confusion. "Eh? Hmm… I think I remember hearing that name somewhere but… oh I don't know."

"Kuroda Shiori? Mai, don't you remember? She was that weird girl from class 1-2 next to our class." reminded Michiru. "Keiko told us that she self-proclaimed herself a psychic. She was in the same middle school with us too. I remember her lecturing us not to tell ghost stories back then in middle school."

"Psychic… Is that true?" asked Naru.

"Well… that's what she said…" uttered her, though she seemed hesitant, "but we don't know for sure."

"Ah right!" exclaimed Mai, "I think I remembered now. She was that girl with eye glasses and braided hair wasn't she? She was kinda scary." Her eyes now dropped back to Naru. "Is there something wrong with her, Naru?"

"Apparently, she's the first comatose victim," informed Naru. He placed the papers on the table, allowing both Mai and Michiru to read them. "Maybe we will find out something more if we met her in person."

Mai furrowed her brow at him. "Huh? But… she's in coma right?"

"Yes for her body, but her soul must be in someone's body just like Koshino-san right now."

Mai was about to voice her agreement to Naru, but a sudden sound from the doorway cut her off. The door slid open, revealing a woman and a man who soon entered the room.

"Well… well… well… quite impressive set up you have here!" said the red haired woman. "For kids' toys they seem pretty fancy, don't they?"

Mai spun around from her seat to see the woman who just spoke. She observed the red haired woman carefully. She was wearing a white top under her red coat and a knee-length black skirt and from the look of it, she seemed like an important person.

"…and you are?" asked Naru in a flat tone. Mai noticed that he looked a little bit irritated since their conversation was interrupted.

She gave him a confident smile as she introduced herself. "Matsuzaki Ayako, I'm a miko. The principal hired me since he thought a child such as you is incompetence to solve this case alone."

Naru just closed his eyes briefly and smirked at her snidely. "Oh... here I thought you had to be a pure and innocent young lady to be a miko."

Matsuzaki scowled indignantly. Her eyes glittered dangerously as she glared at Naru. "OH… That's not how I look to you?" she grunted.

Naru shook his head lightly, clearly unimpressed. "First of all, I'd say you look too old to be 'innocent'… and you wear too much make up to be 'pure', Matsuzaki-san."

With that comment, the miko's face turned all shades of red from holding back her anger, she clenched her jaw furiously while Mai, Michiru and the man behind the woman doing their best to stifle a laugh. Naru raised one eyebrow and stretched his eyes to look at the man behind Matsuzaki Ayako. He had a shoulder-length hair, tied neatly on his back and he was wearing a casual brown jacket with long black trousers.

"And you? You don't act like Matsuzaki-san's assistant." he asked and the man merely scoffed.

"No kidding! I'm Takizawa Houshou, a monk from Mt. Koya," answered the man.

"Mt. Koya now allows long hair on their monks?" Naru asked him casually.

This time, it's the miko's turn to stifle a chuckle. "He's an outlaw," commented her.

Takigawa just scratched his back head which wasn't even itchy and looked at Naru with troubled look. "Well, let's just say I'm currently away from the temple."

"Excuse me…" said a voice from the door.

All of the room occupants soon turned around to see the principal who was standing on the doorway with a blond young man beside him. They both walked into the room and the principal smiled to them all.

"Ah… all of you are here…" he said, "I'd like you all to meet John Brown." He gestured his hand to the man on his right side.

Mai felt her eyes widened at the sight. The aforementioned man was a foreigner boy with blond hair and blue eyes. He looked really young and cute.

"Hello," greeted him as he bowed deeply.

The room suddenly fell quiet, shocked by the fact that he just greeted them in a weird Kansai dialect. Mai could no longer contain her chuckle and snickered. It seemed that the others were able to find it funny too since she saw them trying their best to suppress their laugh, save for Naru and the other serious looking man in that room. Their face distorted from all emotion except for seriousness.

"I'm John Brown. It's a pleasure to meet you all." John smiled to them, unaware of the occupants' laugh for him.

"Ah... apparently, Brown-san learned Japanese in Kansai area…" explained the principal. "Well… I hope you all can solve the case soon. I need to excuse myself now…" With that statement, the principal bowed his head slightly and walked outside the room with worried expression on his face.

John bowed deeply to him. "Thank you."

Again, both Matsuzaki and Takigawa turned their back to stifle a laugh. Matsuzaki whispered to Takigawa between her suppressed breaths. "Hey…hey... you shouldn't laugh at him..."

"You're laughing too!" he whispered back accusingly.

Naru stood from his chair and stepped forward, taking the initiative to talk further. "Brown-san? Where are you from?"

"Ah... I'm from Australia," answered John.

"Dude! I'm begging! Please don't speak in such a weird Kyoto dialect!" snickered Takigawa. He was holding his stomach with his hands, unable to composure himself.

"You don't need to laugh so hard!" Matsuzaki nudged him with her elbow, although she herself was laughing just as hard.

"But, if I want to speak politely, shouldn't I speak in a Kyoto dialect?" He asked innocently, still oblivious to Takigawa and Matsuzaki's hysterical guffaw.

"The Kyoto dialect is just one of many! Trust me on this, you need to stop it, OK?" begged Takigawa.

"OK…" He finally obliged. "Then I'll try to speak more casually. Are you all psychic?" asked him, yet it still sounded weird…

"I told you man, you gotta stop it!" Takigawa produced another laugh.

Naru smiled a little to him, taking a little pity for the young man. "You might say that, how about you?"

"I see… I'm an exorcist." That statement just suddenly froze both Takigawa and Matsuzaki from laughing. Now they both started emitting a strange malicious aura from their eyes.

"In Catholicism I believe you have to be ranked higher than a priest to be an exorcist. You're very young to even be a priest," commented Naru.

"You're very knowledgeable. Actually, I'm nineteen. I just look young for my age." John told him.

Mai and Michiru gaped at him, surprised. '_He's actually older than Naru!'_ shouted Mai in her head.

Then there was a knock on the door. Feeling obligated as Naru's assistant, Mai quickly rose from her seat and walked to the door. "Yes, come in please." She said as she slid the door open. Then she felt her heart just pounced painfully as she jumped back few feet, looking frightened than ever when she found a girl in kimono, whom she thought a ghost, just stood blankly in front the doorway. "Aaah!" She shrieked.

Now all attention moved to the doorway. John, who was the closest to Mai, calmed the girl down and assured her that the girl in kimono wasn't a ghost.

Naru was the first to break the tension filling the room. "You're… Hara Masako, am I correct?"

"You… you know her?" Mai's tone was one of a doubt when she looked at him in confusion. Then she looked back at the girl in kimono. Now that she had calmed down, she finally realized that the girl's a human and she's really beautiful. She was wearing a purple kimono with pink Sakura pattern on it. With her neck-length black hair and short bangs framing her small face, she looked so much like a doll.

Naru simply replied. "She's a famous psychic medium on television."

Hara Masako lifted her eyes to meet Naru's. "Have we… met before? May I know your name?" She asked him.

Naru just gave her a cold smile. "No, I'm Shibuya Kazuya and I believe this is the first time."

"Is that so…" the girl seemed uncertain for a moment but she soon fell silent.

Takigawa sighed, breaking the stillness in the room. "Dang… I guess this is really a troublesome case then. The principal must be really desperate, gathering all the people he could like this," commented Takigawa as he raised his hand to ruffle his hair. Mai couldn't help but agree with him, Naru-chan who's a ghost hunter, a miko-san, a monk, a priest and a famous psychic medium. She wondered to herself if her school really in a doom state.

"That can't be helped, considering that the students who are in coma state still haven't regained their consciousness." John reasoned knowingly.

"You got that right… so, what do you think about this school, guys?" Takigawa glanced at the people on the room questioningly.

"This school… I do sense some spirits here… but, they're a bit strange," replied Masako as she lifted her kimono sleeve to cover her mouth. The attention on the room soon landed on her.

"How strange?" asked Naru to her.

"These spirits… I can feel them here but at the same time, they aren't. They're just wandering around and they're harmless." She stopped briefly and looked around as if searching for something, "…but I sense a faint malevolent aura in this school, it's quite weak… I can't pinpoint the exact location."

"That doesn't really help much, it still won't explain why the students are in coma," commented Matsuzaki.

"Um… actually.." Mai spoke softly, gaining everyone's attention to her. "About that… they're not really in coma. They just switched bodies."

Mai could see Takigawa and Matsuzaki frowned at her, they both giving her a look as if she had just gone mad. John was the only one who looked intrigued while Masako was just as expressionless as Naru and she didn't count Lin, who had turned his back on them.

"Sorry?" asked Takigawa, pleading for a repeat.

"As unbelievable as it sounds, it's the truth." Naru cut off. He took the opportunity to explain in Mai's place. "The comatose students' souls have switched places with other students, leaving their real bodies in coma. One of them is currently in this room." His eyes now shifted to Michiru, who soon looked exceedingly uncomfortable by everyone's stare on her.

"He's right." Masako suddenly clarified with narrowed eyes. She moved closer to Michiru and stared at her in a weird looking gaze. "That man is clearly possessed by a girl spirit, but the strange thing is… I cannot feel the man's soul. It's as if their souls have been switched completely."

"Oi..Oi… no kidding right? What kind of spirit who's strong enough to switch people's souls?" questioned Takigawa. His face looked bewildered.

"In my opinion, this must be an act of a chirei that lives on land." Ayako stated agitatedly while brushing off some hair on her shoulder with her hand.

"Chirei? You mean a Jibakurei?" asked Mai.

"Hmmh… no I don't. Jibakurei are dead human spirits trapped in a particular location because of something that happened there. Chirei are spirits of the land… also known as 'Seirei'." She explained with a huff.

"I think it's a Jibakurei," claimed Takigawa. "Maybe there's something happened to this building in the past and caused a rampage with the students here… but still, It's hard to believe that a lone dead spirit could do this much…"

Naru turned his gaze at John. "What about you, John?"

"I don't know for sure…" He replied reluctantly. "Isn't phenomenon of a haunted building caused by a spirit or a ghost?"

"Spirits... Souls.., Ghost is a Yurei." Naru muttered lowly. "Are you listening, Mai?"

"Huh? Why me?" Mai titled her head, looking baffled by his sudden inquiring to her.

"Because you asked," said Naru flatly.

Mai looked away and pouted, "Why thanks for the consideration…" mumbled her to herself as she strode to sit beside Michiru.

"So if a psychic phenomenon is caused by spirits, it would mean that chirei have a close connection with the location. Or it could mean that the spirits have called for the devil…" explained John, "If the phenomenon caused by a ghost, that would mean it was an act by Jibakurei."

"This is definitely chirei!" Matsuzaki insisted. "The spirits here must have been contaminated by hatred and turned into an evil spirit. That must be the cause for this mess!"

"Hmm.. there's a possibility of that too…" muttered John, thinking profoundly.

"Um… excuse me?" Mai interrupted their musings. "Sorry to interrupt, but I want to know if any of you know a way to return the switched students to their own bodies, my friend Michi certainly wouldn't want to stay on a boy's body any longer." She glanced at Michiru who still looked perturbed on her seat.

Her blunt question just took all of their attention to her. Takigawa was the first person to respond her. "Oh right, we still have that problem. Let me try to recite my sutra on your friend. Maybe that will allow her to return back to where she belongs."

"Are you sure that will work? She's not a dead spirit you know…" said Matsuzaki skeptically.

"Well, we don't know for sure until we try, right?" he told her as he rummaged his bag, taking out certain things for his own preparation. "I'm going to prepare myself then." He said as he left to the room next to the auditorium. "I'll use this room for awhile."

Mai watched him for the last time as he closed the door quietly. Naru had walked to Lin's side, both talking in serious manner yet Mai couldn't hear them clearly. John, Matsuzaki and Masako still discussing the spirit cause, they all have puzzled look on their faces. Mai looked at Michiru who stared at her with a mix of anxiety, fear and hope at the same time. She noticed that her friend would need a lot of support by now and so she gave her a reassuring smile, telling her that it would be alright. Mai couldn't imagine herself if she ever got in the same position as Michiru, the thought alone made her shuddered, especially if no one would trust her… that would be very depressing.

After few minutes of waiting, the door finally re-opened. Takigawa came out and walked into the auditorium clad with monk-outfit, looking all set. "Alright, Michi, was it? Come into the room here and stand there on the circle." He pointed out a circle drawing on the room he was in before. It was the student council room, except that he had put aside the desks and the chairs on that room so that the circle drawing wouldn't be covered.

Michiru nodded to him and stood from her chair. She followed Takigawa instruction to stand in the circle that was drawn with lots of Kanji letters and weird drawings that Mai couldn't decipher any of them at all. Other room occupants except for Lin, who still watching the monitors, also came to the next room, examining in interest as the monk started chanting his mantra. Mai could feel the room temperature changed drastically. It felt hot, as if something was being burned. She saw Michiru looked a bit scared. Her eyes clenched shut and her hands clutching her uniform. She could only pray that everything would work well for her friend.

Then suddenly, the circle drawing just glowed, it started emitting a yellow bright light that engulfed Michiru. Mai could vaguely hear the girl gasped slightly, but she didn't move from her spot. Once Takigawa done with his manta, the lights suddenly off, along with the heat in the room. Takigawa then turned around and told them that the ritual was complete. After that, Michiru fell limp to the ground.

Surprised, Mai stepped forward. She was eyeing the unconscious boy in the floor who was Michiru before. The boy stirred slightly, he sat and looked at his surroundings and to his own hands, looking bewildered, then… without any warning… he cried…

"No… I'm still here… I-I can't go back…!" He croaked desperately.

At that moment everyone eyes widened in shock. Their mind started forming on the possibilities of what might it be. Was it failure? Or…

Mai carefully moved forward behind Takigawa. "Mi..Michi?"

The boy lifted his eyes to meet Mai's. His eyes were wet with fresh tears. "Mai…" cried him.

"No way… that can't be.." muttered Takigawa. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Michi!" Mai hurriedly rushed to Michiru's side. She hugged Michiru soothingly, trying to calm down her friend who was now crying frantically on the floor. However, there are no comforting words that could stop the crying girl as her scream started filling the air, piercing through the ears of those who could only watch them helplessly.

_Is there really no way to return…?_

* * *

The tension in the room had drastically increased after the failed ritual. Naru was standing quietly beside Lin. They both seemed to be busied themselves with some data in the laptop while everyone else was sitting on the chairs, surrounding the only large table in the auditorium. They were all musing quietly, thinking back of what had happened. Meanwhile, Mai was trying her best to calm her friend who still sobbing lightly on the chair next to her.

"It's alright, Michi… we'll find another way." Mai told her as she grabbed Michiru's hand. The girl didn't say anything in return. She just stared at the table blankly.

"This is ridiculous, how come it wouldn't work?" questioned Takigawa, who seemed much more edgy after the ritual.

"There must be something that prevents the souls from switching back," said John. His eyes filled with concern for Michiru who sat across of him.

Masako lifted her kimono sleeve to her mouth as she muttered in a low voice. "This is certainly a serious case… if a soul separated from their body too long…" she stopped, didn't dare to finish her sentence.

"Ah that's right… she's still in coma right?" spoke Matsuzaki, "Wait, come to think of it… if the girl is in coma, where's the boy's soul now?!" demanded her for an answer.

"He must still be in this school." Naru suddenly said. He threw a glimpse at Masako, "If what Hara-san feels about the spirits in this school is true, then the other students' souls are most likely trapped in this school as well." He stopped momentarily for reaction. "There are other two things that I've noticed from this phenomenon. First, that the victims are all students or those around that age since it doesn't affect teachers or adults. Second, it all happened when the victim's alone."

Matsuzaki snorted, "Then this must be caused by chirei." She reasoned. "The land spirits might have possessed this building and trapped those kids."

"If that so, jibakurei can do the same." Takigawa argued. "But if it's a jibakurei's act then there must also be a reason… if we can find the reason and solve it, the students' souls will be released too."

"But… why would spirits or ghosts switch human's souls and trap only some of them alive in this school?" asked John, almost to himself. "It's true that if the comatose students' souls don't return back, their bodies will eventually died but their souls will keep on living inside another body and the trapped souls in this school won't die if their bodies still alive."

Michiru suddenly gasped at his statement. She looked at John fearfully. "Are you saying that I will keep on living as this boy? No... I can't! This is crazy! I would rather die than to keep on living as someone else like this!" She exclaimed dreadfully.

"Michi! Don't say that!" Mai yelled at her, she was frightened too. She couldn't bear to see her friend died no matter what.

"You just don't understand, Mai!" She yelled back at her, rising from her seat to stare down at Mai. "Can you even imagine yourself changed into a guy and accept it like nothing ever happened? Can you accept it, Mai?"

The room fell silent. They all grimaced by the thoughts of being turned into an opposite gender and had to live with it.

"I.. I don't know…" said Mai hoarsely, "but… but… I wouldn't want to kill myself for that… not just I would end my own life… I will also kill the boy with me… I.. I don't want that…" Mai hung her head down. She could feel herself trembling with fear as tears started strolling down from her eyes to her laps.

Seeing her terrified friend, Michi somewhat stunned. She felt guilty for yelling at her. She sat back on her chair and lifted the back of her hand to wipe her own wet face. "I'm sorry… I shouldn't have lost control like that, you're right… I shouldn't be that selfish…"

Mai shook her head to her. "It's okay, just… don't give up hope, Michi." She told her with a smile.

After mere moments of silence, Takigawa sighed heavily. "But still, Michi here is right, I wouldn't want to live as a chick then date another dude, that's just yuck." He ruffled his back hair with one hand, "The girls here might be alright but I dunno bout other students… they could be…" He stopped, eyes widened. He quickly swirled his head to see the others and saw the shocked expression on their faces as realization hit them. "Are you guys thinking the same with me…?"

Masako didn't even lift her Kimono sleeve as she spoke. "Without nowhere to go back and no one would trust them, anyone could feel depressed…" She said, looking horrified.

Matsuzaki gulped. "Hey… Isn't this bad? They all could be committing suicide by now!"

"No Joke! This isn't time for chat!" Takigawa shouted as he stood.

Mai rose from her seat, hands slamming the table as she looked at Naru. "Naru!"

Naru, who was thinking deeply with narrowed eyes, spoke in a stern voice. "Lin, call the hospitals and check the comatose students for any change." He grabbed some papers not far from the monitors and walked to where everyone was sitting, then he roughly placed the papers on the table, beckoning everyone to look on them. "These are the comatose students data complete with their living addresses, their friends' houses and other places they usually around." He said as each of them took one paper to read. "If my guess is right, then they must be not too far from school or their residences area."

They were all looking at Naru in mixture of surprise and amazement. "I see," muttered Takigawa. "But… all of these with just the 8 of us? We don't know who's who and I don't think we can find them all in time! We got work to do here too!"

"Not us, the teachers. Let them do the search. The student counselors and the homeroom teachers must have known certain students with odd behavior, especially students who claimed they're not what they are. It is teachers' job to take care of the students after all," explained Naru.

They all nodded in agreement. Lin suddenly called from behind, gaining everyone's attention to him. "Shibuya, there's still no significant change with the comatose students," informed Lin.

Naru nodded to him and raised one hand to his chin. "Good, this gives us some time."

"I'll inform the principal then," said John as he stood, volunteering himself.

Naru nodded to him. "Yes, please do. Takigawa-san, accompany Brown-san if you would. We can't afford to let anyone walk alone in this school."

"Alright." Takigawa agreed. "Let's go John." He told John before he strode to the door with John following just behind him.

"Let me exorcise this school while we're at it," stated Ayako confidently. "If this is really a chirei's doing, then my power will surely work."

Naru contemplated her request for mere moments before he agreed. "Very well. Hara-san, please assist her," ordered Naru and Masako nodded to him. She followed Matsuzaki as she grabbed her small case and walked away outside without another word.

Mai was mildly astonished by the fact that they're all just met hours ago yet they now acted like a solid team who had known each other for long. Perhaps Naru's strong leadership skill was the one that united them all.

Naru then glanced at Mai "Mai, stop gawking and go measure the temperature of each room in this school." He handed her a digital thermometer, a clipboard and a pen. "Take your friend with you," said him as he walked away from her.

Mai looked at the things in her hands then she looked at Michiru with a frown on her face. "Is it just me or I'm the only one treated harshly here?" whispered her to Michiru, who merely chuckled at her.

"I can hear you clearly. Go to work now!"

"Yes-sire!" Mai jerked up and immediately rushed out the door with Michiru just in tow.

After that, Naru slumped to the nearest chair and grabbed some papers regarding the school's history. _"My gut tells me we're still far from over…"_ thought Naru as he breathed heavily and stared down the data on his hands. He realized that something still felt odd no matter how much he thought about it. He needed something to prove his theory… to conclude the case itself… and he knew that something could only be attained through dangerous way…

"This is a mess indeed…"

-

-

-

---To be continued---

**

* * *

**

A/N:

I was planning to reveal all the mysteries in this chapter but it turned out that the conversations took a lot of pages than I thought it would, so I had to cut off the chapter… I scattered quite a lot of hints in this chapter, do you think you can find them?

**- Yurei:** In my opinion, there is no exact translation for Yurei, Seirei/Chirei, Youkai, and Oni. But still I'll explain with the closest meaning in English. Yurei are Ghosts, deceased human's spirits, if they're trapped and haunted a place, they will be called Jibakurei or trapped souls.

- **Chirei/Seirei:** Chirei are spirits reside in the ground (Land spirits), some are naughty enough to disturb humans and some are friendly. If they got contaminated by sorrow, hatred and anger, they will turn into evil spirits and sometimes attract devil. Chirei are part of Seirei but not all Seirei are Chirei. For example there are other seirei like wind spirits or water spirits…

Well then, until next time!


	5. First Case: Beginning of a mess 4

**Chapter 4: **

**First Case – Beginning of a mess 4**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ghost hunt or its characters in any possible or impossible way.

**A/N:** I'm sorry for the annoying alerts you might find in your mailbox. I just fixed some certain mistakes I made on previous chapters. For example, the event on the prologue actually happened when Mai was 8 year old, not 9 year old and she's been living in the apartment for 8 years, which means she's 16 year old in this story. This information will be crucial for the main plot.

Thank you so much to **Kaydreams, reviewr, Flamegirl5500, cressentfall, AlexaTarot, SouXSou, aniAngelsxx, Unnoticed Observer, reveriethinker13, Akemi Akira,** and **Resrosesthroughbrowneyes** for the kind reviews. Also thank you to those who have read, reviewed, PM'd and added this story to your Fav/Alert, etc. ^^ (I wonder if it's allowed to reply like this…)

**Kaydreams: **Ah… there will be more twists actually, but I will save them for later…

**Reviewr: **Thank you… glad you like it. I have finished planning the main plot. I just need to expand the story now.

**Flamegirl5500: **Don't you think it's strange that none of the students have committed suicide yet? It started happening for months but they all managed to survive somehow. Haha.. don't worry though. It should be explained in this chapter… or maybe not… =P

**Cressentfall: **Really? That's a relief. I think Naru is smart enough to solve a case without Mai's help just like he always do before he met her. But of course, I won't make Mai utterly useless or useful enough as his assistant. She will have her own special role to support him.

**aniAngelsxx: **Oh OK. I will try updating regularly when I can.

**Resrosesthroughbrowneyes: **My… what a pleasant coincidence for us to meet on DA then. Thank you.

**AlexaTarot, SouXSou, Unnoticed Observer, reveriethinker13 **and** Akemi Akira: **Thank you so much. Here's another long chapter. Hope you like it.

* * *

"Michi, could you take a look at these for awhile?"

The said girl in a messy black haired young man's body forced her sleepy black eyes to gaze at her friend who was sitting on one of the chairs in the classroom they were in. She stepped closer to the brunette girl who had just called her to look at the notebook on her hand. It was the rooms' temperature data that they had been gathering so far.

"What about it, Mai?" asked Michiru who soon sat next to her. Her eyes intensely studying the notebook as her friend pointed out certain data with her finger.

"Here… I just realized this when I re-checked the data… the temperature in classroom 2-3 is so low while classroom 2-2 and 2-4 next to it are hot and humid. Isn't it odd, Michi?" asked Mai in concern.

Michiru looked down at the enthusiastic notebook for a short moment before she lifted her face slightly to catch Mai's eyes while her eyebrows furrowed further, causing the other girl to give her a similar expression.

"You're right…" muttered Michiru as she gave her a slight nod in acknowledgment. She shifted her eyes back to the notebook. This time, it's her turn to point out another strange looking data. "There are several other rooms with lower temperatures too… I didn't realize these when I measured the temperatures for you to write before…"

"Yeah… especially the gymnasium and that a/v room… I wonder why…"

Michiru placed her elbow on the desk while her hand supported her face, thinking hard to remember what Naru had mentioned to them before. "Mai, Shibuya-san said the students' souls still trapped here, right? Maybe that's the reason…"

Cinnamon eyes stared blankly at black eyes for a few seconds before something finally clicked into place within her mind. "Are you saying that there were ghosts in those rooms before?"

"Perhaps, high chance they're the students…" said Michiru hesitantly as she attempted to clear out the situation despite of her own confusion flashed in her eyes. Mai watched her intently as she rose from her chair, intending to walk away when she suddenly lost balance of herself. Mai quickly caught her with her hands, preventing the girl from hitting the ground, but she noticed that her body was too heavy for her to handle.

"Michi!" Mai shouted out her friend's name with fear evidently spotted on her voice.

Michiru suddenly jerked up and supported herself by leaning her hand to the desk. She blinked her eyes and looked at concerned Mai strangely as though she never saw Mai before in her life. "……Mai?"

"A-Are you alright Michi?"

"Ah… yeah, I'm alright…" She raised one hand to her head as she looked down at her feet, seeming unsure of herself. Realized that her friend's face was a bit pale and standing only made the girl exhausted, Mai recommended her to sit down. Michiru nodded weakly to her and slowly lowered her body to sit back on the chair. For mere moments, she drew a deep breath and heaved a heavy sigh to gain more composure. "Hiroshi…" She suddenly muttered.

"Huh?"

"I think… that's this boy's name…"

Mai's eyes widened even further when she heard her friend's sudden conclusion. "Hiroshi? H-How did you know that?" asked her with confusion written all over her face.

Michiru shook her head lightly as her eyes looking at Mai with uncertainty. "I'm not sure… but… for a second, I think… I saw his memories… someone… an older woman called him 'Hiroshi' before he went to school, I think… that woman was his mother…" responded her. She looked back at her fiddled hands, ignoring Mai's worried glance. "I wonder why I saw it…"

"I-I'm not sure too Michi, l-let's go back to the auditorium for now. I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe Naru-chan can explain this to us…"

Michiru nodded to her in agreement. She took out Mai's offering hand to let herself being pulled up gently to her feet and followed the girl out from the classroom before she suddenly felt a cold feeling crept on her back, sending shiver through her spine. She was about to look back when Mai suddenly called her name, interrupting her from her own action.

"Michi? What's wrong? We have to go now."

After that, she could feel the coldness gone instantly. Even though she looked back, she didn't see anything behind her, only an empty classroom that they had just measured the temperature.

"No-nothing, let's go." She rushed to Mai's side and took her arm, urging her friend to move faster, as far as possible from that place.

As they walked the corridor, Mai noticed a tall man figure walking quietly to their direction. She narrowed her eyes in attempt to recognize the figure until she realized it was the monk. "Ah! That's the monk!" exclaimed her happily. "Bou-san!" She waved her hand cheerfully to the walking monk who soon waved back to her and fastened his steps to stop just in front of them.

"Hey Jou-chan! Michi-chan!" greeted the monk brightly.

Mai looked at her surroundings as if looking for someone else and noticed something was amiss. "Huh? Where's John-san? Isn't it bad to walk alone in this school?" asked her.

Bou-san grinned a little to her as he raised one hand to ruffle his back head. "Well… John said he's going to join the search with the principal and the other teachers. They're all going to meet up somewhere to begin the meeting. I'm fine since I'm an adult. Even that Shibuya boy said so." He told them. "Are you girls going back to the base?"

Mai nodded firmly to him. "Yes, Michi doesn't feel well… we're going to ask Naru if he knew something wrong…"

Bou-san blinked his amber eyes and leaned forward to examine Michiru intently. "Are you okay, Michi-chan? How are you feeling?"

Michiru averted her gaze from him, feeling a bit awkward from being stared at after the whole idea of her being a guy. "I..I'm fine… just a little tired, I guess.." answered her sheepishly.

"Michi said she saw the boy's memories, she even knew his name now," answered Mai for her.

Bou-san stood upright and faced Mai with surprised look on his face. "Memories….?" Then he crossed his arms, thinking profoundly. "Hmmm… I think I know why…" he trailed off.

Mai threw him a curious look. "Really?"

"Yeah, but… let's ask Shibuya boy just to be sure," suggested him as he started walking ahead, causing both girls to follow him soon enough. "By the way… why are you calling him Naru, Jou-chan? Is that really his name?"

Mai grinned impishly at him. "Hehe… it shorts for narcissist, because he likes to praise himself!"

Bou-san chuckled at her and shook his head in amusement while Michiru just sighed exaggeratedly.

"Mai and her silly nicknaming habit…" commented Michiru wryly.

"I think that's really genius, Jou-chan! Yeah, that frowning dude really needs some help in joke department. I'll call him by that name too." He winked at her playfully, receiving a sparkle look from an obviously happy Mai.

"_Uh-oh… Keiko number 2…" _thought Michiru helplessly in her mind.

After a short cheerful chat full with impractical jokes about the other team members they had just met hours ago, Mai just suddenly stopped once they had descended the staircase, almost halfway to the auditorium. Shortly after, Michiru and Bou-san also stopped their tracks and looked at Mai with baffled look.

"What's the matter, Jou-chan?" asked Bou-san as he noticed Mai's confused eyes.

"I thought I heard something…" uttered her. She turned her head to the door on her left and this time, the other two heard the same disturbing sound coming from the inside. It was the home economy room door.

"Let's take a look, shall we?" asked Bou-san. Mai and Michiru nodded to him, waiting for him to take the first action.

Soon after, the door wrenched open as the trio spilled into the room, just in time to witness a woman clad in Shinto's miko outfit chanting something under her breath. She was standing in the middle of the dark room with closed curtains over the windows. There was also a girl in kimono standing near the wall with her eyes fixedly gazing at the miko.

"Ah! It's Masa-chan!" exclaimed Mai as she approached the said girl in kimono.

Masako gave her an annoyed look after hearing her friendly call towards her. "It's Hara-san for you." She told her arrogantly but Mai didn't seem to care.

The other two soon followed Mai and turned their attention to the serious looking miko who seemed to be in a deep concentration.

"What happened here?" asked Mai to Masako with lower voice as she realized the tension in the room. She also noticed that the miko was speaking in Japanese yet she couldn't understand a word of it. "What is she saying?"

Masako just sighed and raised her kimono sleeve to cover her mouth. "Don't you even know Inori? It's a Shinto's offering pray to the god," replied her indifferently, "She's doing an exorcism for this school right now."

Bou-san blew a low excited whistle. "Shinto's exorcism, eh? Never saw one before… this should be interesting."

Eyes watched as the miko ceremoniously ended her long chants. Soon after that, Mai could feel the room temperature dropped down frigid to her bone. It was very different from the moment where Bou-san's ritual took a place. And in another passing moment, Mai saw something that she never predicted before happened in front of her eyes. The glass windows on that room suddenly cracked and smashed to small shards. Being the closest to the window, Ayako took the most impact and fell to ground. All of them gasped in surprised. Barely register on the situation until they saw blood seeping from Ayako's ankle.

"Ayako!" shouted Bou-san as he scuttled off to her side. "You okay?" asked him, trying to help her stand but received a slap of rejection on his extended hand instead. By this time, Michiru also had walked to her other side, examining the miko's condition for any wound.

"I'm… fine! And no first name terms for you!" The miko croaked indignantly to Bou-san, trying her best to stand without any help but at the next second, she fell back to the ground after seeing something dreadful for the first time in her life.

The glass pieces suddenly floated one by one in the air and aimed right to Mai and Masako who were standing far from the remaining others. Their eyes widened in shock as they saw all of the glass pieces now have floated and started to move towards them. Both girls were too horrified to comprehend the situation and their own bodies were paralyzed by sudden fear.

"RUUUN!!!" screamed Ayako to both of them, causing the girls to flinch in realization that their lives were in danger.

Mai looked at Masako who was still appalled by the sight before them. She initiatively took her hand and dragged her out from that room as fast as her shaky legs could bring them. She didn't even care how long she had stopped breathing as her mind desperately shouted at her to save Masako no matter what might happened. One thing that they never expected before, each time they passed a window at the corridor, the glass window just suddenly shattered to pieces and those pieces floated, resuming the pursuit to hunt the escaping girls. Mai could feel some of the pieces made their way to shred her skins, making her gasped in pain. Her own blood started dripping down from her wounds mixed with her sweats as she felt an obscured amount of fear started intoxicating her sanity. However, they continued to run, sweeping through the hall with frightened look that they could no longer hide behind their swaying nerves.

'_No… there is nowhere to hide… We have to escape from the school!'_

Just when they almost reached the front doors, all of the glass doors suddenly closed themselves with a loud bang and the glass smashed to another floating shards. Both Mai and Masako gasped at the sight. Now they had no choice but to keep on running to the school's right wing since the left wing filled with hundreds of floating glass shards that kept on pursuing them with breakneck speed.

Unaware to Mai, the entire running had created quite a massive exertion for the girl in kimono since her outfit was made nowhere close for an Olympic athlete. She stumbled down with hand still attached to Mai's, pulling the brunette girl to fall in a rough slam to the floor with her. Mai wriggled on the ground, fighting hard to balance herself and frantically leaped to Masako's side to cover the girl with her arms as she screamed upon seeing the merciless shards of glass that charged directly into the now cornered girls who could only wait vulnerably for the imminent impact.

"**NOOOOOO!!!!"**

Two loud unearthly screams resounded throughout the halls, clashing with the sounds of piercing smithereens glass that collided into one another in a fleeting moment.

At the same instance, the hall was suddenly agleam with illuminating lights, covering every sight of walls and corners alike. After some minutes of waiting with bated breath, Mai slowly opened her eyes only to find herself and Masako exceptionally fine without any further wounds on their shivering bodies. Mai released her tight clutch from Masako to find what was going on since the awaited impact never came.

There, right before them… Mai saw a white blinding figure with four legs shielding them both from their floating menace. It's as if the time had been stopped when they saw themselves surrounded with the glass shards, yet none of those shards able to reach them since the white figure somehow had created an invisible barrier to protect them. And with one single graceful move, it repelled the shards away from them with bright lights, causing both girls to close their eyes for brief moments until the light gradually disappeared along with the white figure, leaving only the two of them circled by the scattered glass shards on the floor. Mai blinked her eyes repeatedly almost in disbelief to what had happened. From afar, she could faintly hear Michiru and Bou-san's voices mixed together calling over her and Masako.

"Mai!" Michiru quickly marched to them and hugged Mai in relief while Bou-san checked on their condition as soon as he got to their side. Just behind them, Ayako hobbled to them with worried look on her face. Then suddenly, Mai felt her left arm grabbed by someone. She threw a glance at the one holding her left arm, it was Naru. He was looking at her wounds on her arm and lifted his midnight blue eyes to gaze at Mai's stunned face.

"We need to tend this soon." He told her with a solemn look yet his voice was as calm as ever.

Bou-san took a hold of Mai's shoulder in assuring gesture and smiled. "Can you both stand? We need to go to the infirmary now."

Mai nodded weakly to him as a respond. She turned to look at Masako who still hadn't given them any answer yet. Then she discerned the still transfixed expression on Masako's face. Her eyes were still staring into a far distance without even giving any acknowledgment to her surroundings. Carefully, Mai shook Masako's shoulder lightly to gain her attention back to reality. "Masa-chan? Masako-chan!" called Mai to her.

Masako suddenly looked aghast and faced Mai with widened eyes. "Y-Yes…?"

"Are you alright?" asked Mai in concern as she noticed the perplexed look on the other girl's wet eyes.

"Y..Yes… I'm… fine…" was the black haired girl's barely audible reply, yet incredibly lonely as her eyes looked down once again, just not exactly on the floor. She tightly clutched her kimono fabric without falter to stop her trembling hands although she knew it was a vain.

The others seemed to notice her strange behavior as well, yet they didn't say anything else as they walked silently to the infirmary.

* * *

"Pray tell, what on earth happened exactly? Anyone has explanation?" asked Bou-san to the infirmary occupants who seemed too lost in deep thoughts to answer.

Ayako let out a heavy sigh once she had finished bandaging Mai's wounds. "Don't look at me. It wasn't really a failure."

Bou-san rolled his eyes, "Yes it was. On top of that, you enraged the spirits here."

Ayako just snorted and looked away with a huff "…and so was your exorcism!" She retorted, causing a grimaced Bou-san to shut his mouth further. Michiru gave them both a troubled look, unsure of what to do while Mai didn't seem to pay attention to them. Instead, Mai stole a glance at Naru, hoping him to enlighten the situation. The said young man had his focus on Lin, who was standing not too far from him.

"What do you think, Lin?" asked Naru to him nonchalantly.

"The temperature was down significantly when it happened. It was indeed a poltergeist and a strong one as well." He replied with serious tone.

Mai furrowed her eyebrows as she thought back to what happened before. They were saved by a mysterious white-animal figure but strangely, she couldn't remember the figure and it seemed that her memory regarding the figure started diminishing on every second passed. No… she didn't want to forget it…

"Um… did any of you know about the white figure that just saved us?" asked Mai reluctantly to them, earning a few raised eyebrows from them, complete with confusion drawn on their faces.

"What are you talking about?" asked Bou-san with marked puzzlement in his tone. "There's no white figure…"

Even Naru sparked his interest in this conversation. "I thought it was your power that stopped the shards. Are you saying it wasn't?" asked him as he gave her a curious demanding look.

Mai shook her head to him. "N-No… I don't have such power… I-I can't heal my own wounds too…" stuttered her as she stared down her bandaged arm with sad look in her eyes.

'_What's the meaning of this…? They didn't see that white figure?' _questioned Mai to herself.

Other occupants such as Bou-san and Ayako twitched their eyebrows together. "What are you two talking about? That's to be expected, right?" asked Bou-san, breaking the sudden silence that just engulfed the room.

"A-anyway… Masako-chan saw it too… I think she can explain it better than…" Mai spun her head to look for Masako when she suddenly stopped as she noticed something strange.

Masako was nowhere to be found…

"Huh? Where is Masako-chan?" Mai's eyes darted around, scanning the room for her presence. The others soon joined her by looking around the infirmary yet they still couldn't find the said girl in kimono.

"Weird… she was here minutes ago…" uttered Ayako with slight panic in her voice.

"This isn't good, let's go back to the base. We should look for her from the monitors," said Naru before he opened the door and led the others back to the base with restless haste.

* * *

As soon as Lin reached the base, he quickly brought his legs to the monitors and checked the areas caught in cameras. The others soon swarmed behind him, waiting for his confirmation over the missing medium.

"There she is!" Bou-san suddenly shouted as he pointed out certain monitor with a blurry unconscious girl image on it. Then without so much of another second glance or words, the men quickly bolted out from the room, heading towards the area showed on the monitor, while Mai and Michiru helped Ayako to walk faster, considering her legs were hurt after the earlier turns of events.

"I'm fine." Ayako told them both sternly, "You two go on ahead. I'll catch up soon enough,"

Both Mai and Michiru exchanged reluctant glance that soon turned into a nod for the miko as they marched outside the room and proceed to follow the already departed group of men before them. Once they caught a sight of the men, they both stopped just behind Bou-san who was in squat position, holding an unconscious Masako's wrist with his hands.

"No good… she's not breathing!" sounded Bou-san breathlessly.

Michiru gasped and put her hands on her mouth as she bent down to see Masako's limp body. Beside her, Mai quickly held Masako's hand in attempt to re-confirm Bou-san's words. Then she felt herself shaken by the thought of what possibly happened.

"No…. she's just like Michi…" uttered Mai. She turned her head to gaze at Naru with almost despondent look in her teary eyes as she lightly shook her head, "I..I can't heal her, Naru…" She told him with a whispered voice.

Naru briefly closed his eyes and heaved a sigh as he stood to stare down at them all. "Lin, call the ambulance. Takigawa-san, please bring Hara-san to the infirmary while we wait for the ambulance. The rest of you, go back to the base. We still need to check on the video tapes to find out what happened here." With that orders, Lin nodded and followed Naru as he walked back to the base before he stopped to face Ayako who already caught up with them.

"I will wait with her in the infirmary. I might as well come with her to the hospital," announced Ayako with determination, which was understandably given the fact that she was also hurt and needed to be taken care further more than just a normal first aid from the school infirmary.

Naru merely nodded to her and resumed his walk, which was soon followed by Mai and Michiru while Ayako walked side by side with Bou-san who carefully carried Masako in his arms to the infirmary.

* * *

Mai's eyes keenly observed Lin in wonder from her seat as the older man typing something over the computer and checked on the monitors. "Yes, it's recorded clearly. Do you wish to see it now?"

Naru nodded to him and walked to the monitors. Just in the moment where they were about to replay the videos, someone knocked the auditorium door. All eyes soon turned to the doorway to find Bou-san opened the door and grinned to them all.

"Hey, mind if I interrupt?" asked him airily.

"Bou-san!" exclaimed Mai in surprise. "Why are you here? I thought you're going to the hospital with the ambulance," asked her as she remembered the ambulance that just left minutes ago.

Bou-san just shrugged and walked inside with hands inside his pockets and eyes gazing at Mai. "Well… I'm sure Ayako is more than enough to handle that, besides… I'm still kinda curious you know.."

Michiru smiled kindly to him. "You're in the right timing then. We're about to replay the tape now." She told him as she walked with Mai nearer to the monitors. They all now watched the monitors while Lin replayed the tapes for them. No sooner, the monitors showed an image of the previous room where Mai and Masako were attacked before. Only this time, no one was there… only some disarrayed shards scattered on the floor throughout the halls.

After few seconds of waiting in painful silence, one entrant could be seen emerged to view… it was Masako. The female medium staggered around the corridor as if desperately searching for something with a sad countenance.

"What is she doing? Didn't she know it was danger to wander alone?" asked Bou-san impatiently.

"Maybe she's trying to look for the cause herself?" wondered Michiru. It was the most reasonable explanation since Masako was a famous psychic medium.

Mai frowned when she noted the mentioned girl's mouth was muttering over something on the monitor, however… she couldn't hear a thing of what she was saying.

"I think she's trying to say something…." mentioned Mai, grabbing the attention of those present into a more convenient silent.

"Lin, put the speakers on." Instructed Naru to Lin, who soon obliged his boss' command, letting them listened to the now audible voices.

"_Where… …you ….please…."_

Mai blinked her eyes rapidly. Although they could hear Masako's voice now, it was too vague to understand. And for that matter, Naru barked another simple order to Lin, while his eyes never left the monitors. "Raise the volume," which was soon complied by Lin.

"_Where… are you… Show yourself…. Please…. It was you…. Wasn't it…?" _

After hearing that, the room occupants soon fused their eyebrows together into a frown. "What is she talking about?" asked Bou-san.

Then they saw Masako suddenly grabbed her head, looking somewhat in pain. After that, she stared into the window for a moment before she fell limp onto the ground.

"Wha…what just happened?" blurted Mai and Michiru in chorus.

"As I thought…" muttered Naru as he put one hand to his chin, "It's the glass." He merely stated. All eyes now turned into Naru who acknowledged their bewildered look and continued. "Everything with glass in this school sucked the spirits and trapped them inside," explained him concisely, causing the others plainly agape, save for Lin who was keeping his focus on other task at hand.

"Glass? What are you talking about?" exclaimed Bou-san, "How is that… huh? Wait a sec…" Bou-san stopped and narrowed his amber eyes in realization, "I have heard before that glass or mirrors are doors to another world… Then could it be…"

"Right, it's just like what Hara-san said," confirmed Naru. "The spirits are here but at the same time they aren't, because they're trapped in the mirror world. Supposedly, after the first victim looked into a mirror or a glass, they fell into coma state after their soul got sucked in. Then the next victim did the same and their souls switched. This caused the second victim's soul trapped inside the other realm while the first victim's trapped in the second victim's body. Separately after this, if another victim came, they will fall into coma and so on… this cycle keeps on continuing even until now."

"I see…" Bou-san nodded knowingly, "so the students' souls trapped inside this school are all the second victims… and those got switched in another bodies are the first victims…"

"Correct," stated Naru. His eyes now wandered far enough without any focus as he mused to himself aloud. "One thing that still bothers me… if this cycle started two months ago… it's almost absurd for the students to keep on surviving until now without any second thought for suicide. Does this mean they have somewhat able to convince their families and friends..? Or perhaps…" He trailed off, looking a bit motivated for some reason that Mai couldn't understand.

"Memories…" Michiru suddenly cut off, something that they didn't expect at all. "Just recently, I saw this boy's memories… It was just a flash but quite clear for me. I think that's what allowed the students to know about the bodies' owners and learned to accept their new lives," added her hurriedly. "I don't know why myself but somehow… I… I think I can accept myself after I saw those memories… It's as if… I-I have been changed into 'him' completely, I feel like I'm starting to forget my own memories too…"

Mai gazed at her friend in surprise. She didn't know her friend was having such conflict on her own despite of her always calm looking feature.

"Interesting…" commented Naru with a glint of enthusiasm in his eyes, "That makes sense then… What left now is to find the cause for this."

"Do you have any idea, Naru-bou?" asked Bou-san inquiringly.

Naru arched one eyebrow at him but decided to pay no heed as he shot a glare at grinning Mai. Obviously, the girl must be the 'cause' for his newly created nickname.

"I will share you my opinion later once I got a hold of the principal." He simply told him that and approached Lin who was speaking on his cell phone. "How is it, Lin?"

Lin turned his head and handed him the phone before he replied. "It's John Brown, he's with the principal."

Naru turned the phone speaker on and let the others to hear the conversation. "Brown-san, this is Shibuya. How is everything going on there?"

"Ah… Shibuya-san. Good evening." A kansai dialect answered through the phone, however… no one laughing this time. "The teachers just found some students and brought them altogether in a hotel room. We're planning to keep the students there for awhile until everything is fine. We're still looking for the others students though… it's getting dark so we're in a hurry," explained John with uneasiness hinted in his tone. Behind his voice, a car engine's sound could be heard as well.

"About that matter, try looking for the students on their own houses, not their real homes. We just got deduction that the students might be there by now," said Naru, "and if you would, please find Kuroda Shiori, the first victim for this case. We might be able to gain more lead just by finding her."

Mai scratched her cheek in confusion after hearing Naru's last order. _'What did he mean with 'just'…?' _asked her to herself, though she was too hesitant to speak up her mind.

"Oh alright, is there anything else you need?" asked John politely.

"Yes, tell the principal to vacate the school tomorrow. It's too dangerous to let the students here until the case is solved." With that sentence, Naru politely excused himself and turned off the cell phone before he looked back to find Mai and Michiru gaped at him.

"Naru-chan! What do you mean about vacating the school?" demanded Mai, almost sounded like a yell.

Naru didn't mind her demanding voice at all and quietly handed the cell phone back to Lin before he replied coolly. "It's just as I've said. What? Do you have any complain?"

Mai quickly shook her head and took his hand in sudden move then stared at him with bright eyes as she shook his hand roughly. "No! I thank you for the bottom of my heart."

Michiru raised one hand on her forehead and sighed in embarrassment at the scene before her. "Mai…."

Bou-san just chuckled and watched Naru humorously as the young ghost hunter pulled his hand out from Mai's grasp in a swift movement. Feeling the tension had gone, the monk smiled to them. "Well… I think I'm going to visit John then. There's something I wanna check."

"Huh? You're leaving, Bou-san?" asked a suddenly disappointed looking Mai.

"Yeah, don't worry though. I have John's number. I'm going to ask the students by myself."

"Will you come back?" asked Michiru who seemed to have enjoyed his company.

"Sure, will be back tomorrow. Nice knowing you all, by the way." He told them before he waved a hand and left the room, making them aware with the abrupt silence after he left soon enough. Even Mai could perceive the almost lonely look in her companions' eyes no matter how much they tried to hide it.

"Both of you better go home now. It's late already," suggested Naru to the two girls who were still viewing the doorway.

Mai soon landed her eyes on Naru with frowned forehead, trying to protest. "What? But…"

"No one said you can't go back here," said him as he turned away from their gaze, busying himself with some piles of papers on the table.

Mai blinked her eyes, feeling her mouth quirked up to form a smile. "Yeah! We will back again for sure!" exclaimed her with happy tone, she hurriedly grabbed Michiru's hand and hauled her out to the doorway before she turned her back to glance at Naru for the last time. "See you tomorrow then, Lin-san, Naru-kaichou!" With that remark, she left out from Naru's sight, leaving the said young man with a slight smirk on his face.

Once some minutes had passed, Lin faced the young boss and spoke in fluent English. "Noll, are you sure about hiring Taniyama Mai?" asked him.

Naru raised his eyebrow to him warily. "Is something wrong, Lin?"

The older man was still staring at him solemnly as he replied back. "I trust your decision but it doesn't mean I will trust her as well." He told him and sat back in front of the monitors without another word.

Naru just smirked at him and looked away. "Fair enough…"

_

_

_

---To be continued---

* * *

**A/N:** Ah right, I forgot to include glossaries before, running lack of sleep... Next chapter will be the last chapter for this case.

**Inori:** It means prayer.

**Bou-san:** I bet you all knew already, it means 'Monk-san'. Even Mai has difficulty to remember the Monk's surname...

**Shinto:** Oh dear... it's a religion from Japan. As a matter of fact, Religions don't come first in Japan since they don't celebrate religious days as holidays, such as X-mas counted as normal day. Although some Japanese celebrate it, it still don't count as holiday. Instead, they celebrate national holidays like culture day, Emperor's birthday, etc. Also, Japanese police force or law won't interfere with religious matters.

**Kaichou:** It means boss, president or chairman. In this case, Naru is Mai's boss so she called him that way to tease him. It's like another honorific besides '-san'.

**Honorific call:** I will try explaining Mai's nickname over the team members. Mai called those older than her with suffix '-san' while those not too old from her with first name terms and friendlier honorific. For example Masako as either Masa-chan or Masako-chan, and John not as Brown-san but John-san. However, she still called John with suffix '-san' because he's older than her. As her nickname for Naru... well he's an exception for you all know the reason.


End file.
